Swift by Bill Laurance - First Impressions

I have to say, I’m a little disappointed by this new album. Having thoroughly enjoyed Flint, I expected Swift to build upon the foundations that the previous album established. Flint was an album that not only provided intellectually stimulating music, but also provided music that evoked feeling from the listener. Swift is certainly musically diverse and impressive in an intellectual sense, which is something I always look for when listening to new music, but it never made me feel anything. Swift lacks the balance that Flint found between esotericism and accessibility. There are certainly no standout tracks that stuck with me after listening to the album. I understand that the point of this album is to create a series of musical landscapes, but what that does is to make sitting and listening to the pieces themselves as a primary activity rather difficult. The biggest issue that I have with the album is that it seems confused. On one hand, it’s trying to break down the barriers between genres and create an intellectual music experience. On the other hand, it creates a sound that is best heard when one doesn’t pay attention to it. There is no denying that the music itself has a serene beauty to it, but that doesn’t help the fact that at times, it feels as if it’s not moving anywhere. To me, Swift feels like an album that could have done something amazing, had the music felt as though it had the purpose that the concept of the album intended.