HEADSWIM – DESPITE YOURSELF – LP REVIEW

HEADSWIM – DESPITE YOURSELF – LP REVIEW

26th November 2024 0 By Jon Deaux

It’s always great to hear an old(ish) album by a band that you’re completely unfamiliar with and that’s what has happened with the classic Despite Yourself by Headswim which was released back in 1997 and now it’s expanded.

 

Think alternative rock, but with a side of existential dread. Unsurprising really, as this album was written and recorded not long after the death of Dan and Toms’s brother Matthew from leukemia.

 

This is not an album to play at your house party unless you want people to start staring into their drinks and having profound conversations about “what it all means.” .

For some reason Headswim got compared to Radiohead back in the day. Buggered if I know how. Dan Glendings vocals have more in common with Bono than Thom York and then there’s the orchestration which is quite simply sublime. This album is like finding a diary in your parents’ attic—unexpectedly emotional, slightly dusty, but undeniably fascinating.

 

Headswim produced an excellent representation of ‘Albums That Make Me Stare Pensively Into the Middle Distance.’
The stand-out track in the version of the stringed-infused version of the ‘hit’ Tourniquet  which makes up just a small part of the expanded version of this classic album.

There is no bad track on this record and despite its depressing existential nature, you still won’t be able to help yourself swaying as the album swaddles you like a weighted blanket of emotional turmoil. It’s heavy, but it’s also oddly comforting.

Score 9/10

Despite Yourself deluxe tracklist
Side A (1 / 4):
Tourniquet
Hype
Years On Me
Clinging To The Wreckage
Better Made
Side B (2 / 4):
Wishing I Was Naive
Old Angel Midnight
Holy Ghost
Burnt Out Shell Of Bliss
Devil In My Palm
Side C (3 / 4):
Moving On
Brother
Black Car
Last Subway Coma
Recovery Position
Side D (4 / 4):
The Seed
Plagued
No Ticket
Tourniquet W/ Strings
Label – Trapped Animal
Release – 6th December 2024

For all things Headswim, click HERE and to purchase the album, click HERE

 

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