EP Review: swim school - 'making sense of it all'
It’s been pissing it down everywhere else but there’s been something of a heatwave following Edinburgh’s swim school around this summer. From buzzing queues snaking around the block for their sets at Latitude to a sold-out Glasgow show this weekend at the Valhalla of music venues, King Tuts, the band have shown no signs of pandemic fatigue. Next up on their shopping list is the small matter of a debut EP. It follows hot on the heels of several successful singles they’ve peppered us with throughout the year.
‘Let Me Inside Your Head’ and ‘Outside’ were the first appetisers of ‘Making Sense Of It All’ and signalled a band with invigorated ideas across the board from their vintage wardrobe to the increased gain on their amps. Every avenue had been carefully crafted to create a 360 aesthetic and that theme of hard work and consideration carries on through the rest of the EP.
‘Anyway’ is an instant classic and carries a similar warm and fuzzy feeling to that of a memorable holiday you never want to end. It has everything a great pop/rock song should have without ever sounding contrived or like it’s been born from a generic formula which many more commercial bands can be guilty of.
There’s an unexpected wild-card entry in the shape of ‘Everything You Wanted’ but it breaks up the EP perfectly with its experimental explosions in sound bursting across out from the mix. Production-wise it’s the most ambitious track on the EP but it’s more than worthy of its place in a strong line-up because it offers something quite unpredictable and unique.
Wolf Alice whistles aren’t likely to quieten down for swim school any time soon with one or two notable similarities between the two, but as the harmonies and final few bars of ‘Outside’ ring out, it becomes clear that ‘Making Sense Of It All’ doesn’t sound like anyone other than the band that recorded it.
With their debut EP now under their belt, swim school appear to have already cracked the formula and the heatwave seems destined to follow them around for some time yet.
Words by Richard Cobb