The Swimmers - People Are Soft

The Swimmers are an Indie synth-pop band from Philadelphia. Their recently released ‘People Are Soft’ is a sophomore effort, recorded in the band’s newly built studio.
‘People Are Soft’ is a relaxing, soft, entrancing album. It starts off with ‘Shelter’ and ‘A Hundred Hearts.’ These two are both heavy on the synthesizer riffs. The Swimmers have essentially taken the guitar out for synthesizer in many places on this album. That’s not to say it doesn’t work however. The rhythm section, drums and bass, does a great job for support and keeps it real, while the synthesizer just multiplies.
‘What This World is Coming To’ is a nice mellow piece. The guitar and synthesizer share beautifully in this song, with some simple drumming and bass playing to even everything out. The song slowly builds in the end with more and more synth layering on to drop off back to just the guitar. After a false ending, the track explodes with sound to fade out once more.
‘Give Me the Sun’ starts off with some vocal harmonies running through a vocoder: “Gimme gimme the sun,” over and over again, sticking around even for the verse. A steady drumbeat accompanies the bass which is running through some fun filter/overdrive effects.
‘Save Me From The Brightness’ sacrifices some of over-abundant synthesizer for real pinao, half of the time. Guitar is also popping its head back into the mix. The song brings about some sort of nostalgia in its lyrical content, a longing for a time when hanging out at the park late at night was the thing to do on a school night: “Hiding out late at night / at the edge of the park.”
‘Nervous Wreck’ is a ballad for the nervous musician. The lyrics reflect the trials and tribulations of performing: “The lights go down and I’m a nervous wreck / crashing on the cymbals and the hiding in the shadows.” This is one of the songs on the album that breaks away from the over-use of synthesizer and instead keeps it in the background to back everything else up.
‘To The Bells’ includes one of the more interesting drum pieces on the album, going beyond just keeping time like a metronome. ‘Dress Don’t Fit’ starts again with the simple rhythm section backing some guitar and really low volume, backing synthesizer riffs in the background.
‘Anything Together’ and ‘Try To Settle In’ continue on with a lot of synthesizer, harmonized vocals and simple rhythm section droning. ‘People Are Soft’ is fun to listen to, and very accessible and easy to enjoy, but it lacks a lot of ‘meat.’ For anyone who is a fan of the sound of Eighties pop-rock’s heavy use of corny synthesizer sounds(think ‘The Final Countdown’), this is something to be treasured. All together the album is a solid listen, and very relaxing, but leaves one wanting more.