Cole Swensen / Neighbor / Tall Timbers
It’s quite obvious that Cole Swensen has had his heart ripped out a few times… Or maybe just once, since that is often all it takes for one to retreat into a pad of paper and an acoustic guitar. It’s also quite possible that it’s just the narrator of his lyrics who knows a thing or two about lost love, heartache, and pain. In any case, Swensen is here with his brand new track, “Swedish Alps,” which opens up with a sample from a park in Brooklyn– the scene of a criminal heartbreak? We are not sure. What we do know is that the guitar soon makes an appearance, letting the listener know immediately that this is going to be quite the distressful little number. And sure enough, Swensen hits us with a tale of someone making too many promises, then breaking every last one of them, destroying any possiblility of a future together. The subject matter is one with which we are all familiar, but Swensen, here, has the delightfully horrifying gift of breathing new depths of sadness with each syllable, often only releasing them with just a whisper. Whether you’ve been there or not, “Swedish Alps” will make you experience the pain of losing someone all over again, which is, for some reason, exactly why we are recommending that you stop whatever you’re doing and press play. -TM
And hey! Since we have you here, with your heart already in a million freakin’ pieces, you really need to check out Nashville’s Neighbor. In case you missed it, we recently posted a cover of Billie Eilish’s “Lovely,” by VOYAGR. Unbeknownst to us, modern pop music is really leaving its fingerprints all over our souls because Neighbor’s cover of “Ghost,” originally by (gasp) Justin Bieber, has definitely caught our attention. Before we lose all of our street cred, you really have to hear this rendition; Neighbor has stripped it down to its bare bones, laying it out before us as if it’s the last song you’d play in a dark and quiet room before retreating into silent contemplation for the remainder of the evening. It’s sweetly sung against a backdrop of acoustic guitar, some scarcely placed piano keys, and a bit of bass on the chorus. For those of you looking for the perfect track to learn and sing for a long, lost love, Neighbor has got you covered; however, it is very likely that you will not believe us until you have heard it for yourselves (this is the part where you press play). -TM
After releasing his self-titled LP in January 2021, Tall Timbers has returned with a new album, simply called II. The New Orleans-based musician's latest single off this album, “Ghost Bird,” is a soothing, finger-picked acoustic diddy. Only piano and mellotron are occasionally used as additional instruments in the sparse arrangement. The piano plays gentle single notes and the “Strawberry Fields-esque” mellotron lifts up the production as if floating on a breeze. The extraordinarily soft and dreamy background vocals add weight to the main vocal, with a subtle hint of melancholy, yet a certain hope that things will improve. The tune is somewhat reminiscent of a campfire song and would be more than appropriate to play when the acoustic guitar is pulled out of the tent for the evening’s entertainment. -John Michie