Swervedriver have been making edgy sound waves for decades, but until just a few years ago had almost disappeared completely. When they released I Wasn’t Born To Lose You (2015), things started picking up and their legendary, mythical proportions started returning to people’s minds as the band started touring again. Now they have another, Future-Ruins, which, as the dystopian title suggests, leads the listener on a journey into a place and time of disjuncture and dark fates. Sixth studio album ‘Future Ruins’ is exquisite, featuring jaw-dropping songs that tap into the human condition and what it means to be alive in 2018. Themes of foreboding about the future feature prominently, but the music is full of the complex fuzzy maelstroms that made many fall in love with the band in the first place.

Shoegaze, Post-punk

Like: Slowdive, Dinosaur Jr, Mogwai, Fleet Foxes

FCC on 3

Play: 2, 3, 6, 9

1.Mary Winter (5:04) Banging guitar riff and drum roll that soon melds into the melodic swoon.
2.The Lonely Crowd Fades In The Air (4:13) Vintage Swervedriver, echoing why bands like Slowdive, or Dinosaur Jr.
3.Future Ruins (6:12) A mood of angry resignation or resigned anger.
4.Theeascending (4:45) Dragging pace opens into a spacey, noise rock ending.
5.Drone Lover (4:18) A brief flash of color in an album bogged down in a monochromatic haze.
6.Spiked Flower (3:25) May be the pop song that finds its way to audiences outside the fanbase.
7.Everybody's Going Somewhere & No One's Going Anywhere (3:49) A haunting post-rock dirge that recalls Mogwai’s.
8.Golden Remedy (5:42) A lush throwback to the glorious noise their early records utilized in poignant doses.
9.Good Times Are So Hard To Follow (3:09) Pop banger that would be certainties for primetime radio airplay.
10.Radio Silent (7:04) Swelling finale that find their power in ambiance and drifting atmosphere.