The Swear - Hotel Rooms And Heart Attacks (c) 2008 Archenland Music
Artist....: The Swear
Album.....: Hotel Rooms And Heart Attacks
Type......: Album
Source....: CDDA
Tracks....: 13
Genre.....: Indie
Label.....: Archenland Music
Catalogue#: n/a
Encoder...: LAME 3.97
Quality...: VBR kbps / 44.1KHz / Joint-Stereo
URL.......: www.theswear.com
Tracklist:
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01 Vampire 02:36
02 Shuttered Off Christine 03:38
03 Some Graves Are Stolen 04:02
04 History Of Cinema 02:48
05 A Moment In The Glass 00:33
06 Deadfall 02:53
07 The Violence Rings 03:16
08 Always Wasted 03:54
09 Birmingham 04:16
10 One Must Be So Careful 00:07
11 Last Breath 03:56
12 The City That Never 05:52
13 Morning In June 03:51
Total:64,5 MB / 41:42 min
Release Notes:
--------------
The Swear helps usher post-millennial emo-punk into rock's maws with
Hotel Rooms and Heart Attacks. Where many a emo kid will bemoan the
loss of perceived authenticity as The Swear backs off mall-punk
melodrama and saccharine pop-punk melodies, Hotel Rooms does emo proud
in the subgenre-to-rock transition. Led by singer/guitarist Elizabeth
Elkins, the Atlanta-homebased band is as indebted to The Foo Fighters
as Funeral for a Friend.
Since mainstream pop-punk influences bastardized the emo movement long
before most of its members ever dreamed of caking on makeup, the act
easily sidesteps charges of bastardizing teen culture as it roars
through a huge, guitar-worshipping pop-rock album that's all volumes,
charging hooks and feisty attitude. Elkins' vocals could be compared to
those of a younger, less trashy Courtney Love if drawing those
parallels wasn't a left-handed compliment; as it sits, just think of
her as carrying the torch for guitar-wielding femme fatales from Heart
and The Runaways to The Donnas and Liz Phair.
Hotel Rooms and Heart Attacks is more than mere "not just boys fun"
fun, though. The Swear knows its way around an arena-sized anthem just
as well as a chugging pop-punk riff. Combined, the two talents work
seamlessly for an album that opts to be powerful and catchy instead of
groundbreaking. It's a fair tradeoff. The Swear isn't afraid of
rattling windows with the gritty guitar tones we've heard in acts like
Funeral, though Elkins' is anything but a screamer. Her vocals
transform "History of Cinema" from a hard-rock rager into a simmering
pop number, and shows off her diversity, sinking into golden-throated
melodies before tearing the roof off in "Last Breath."
While she tends to business at the microphone, her band takes care of
the back end. "Some Graves Are Stolen" avoids morbid emo-metal cliche
with a sinister, though highly polished, torch ballad for the
wrist-cutter generation. "The Violence Rings" gives the monster ballad
an emo makeover, and "Deadfall" has more oomph than the last three
Blackhearts albums combined.
The Swear wants nothing more to rock the big arenas, and isn't wasting
its time with false scene modesty. It even cuts a few corners to get
there, too. Hotel Rooms and Heart Attacks is living proof that
mainstreaming underground styles can be a good thing.
- Matt Pirkle