The Swims - Ride of the Blueberry Winter

Dork rockers The Swims come out blaring with their quaint brand of absurdi-pop in Ride of the Blueberry Winter. The opening rounds leave one wanting to give them some Ritalin and a swift kick in the posterior. When The Swims finally draw in their breath on track five to release the simple pleasures of “Sara Jean,” the moment is quite welcome. This bit of relaxation does the album some good because the rest isn’t too bad. The music cranks back up to its hyper state at times, but the material is more interesting and varied. The capricious nature of the songs begins to dig in to your skin. Compositions delivered are at times fun, beautiful, and dare I say, compelling? (Please reference one of my favorites, “Knitting Factory”). Just be prepared to handle the strong, overlying sense of oddity that wallpapers pretty much everything on the album. Okay- the first four songs were… questionable. Chalk it up to personal preference. Luckily, there are twelve more to go! That’s more songs than you might get on another entire album. My advice? Quaff some Truffleberry wine, grab an upstate milkmaid and doff your boring sensibilities for a while. [www.theswims.com]