Music Review // ASTRAL SWANS "THE COWARD"

 

One of the things I like right away about the music of ASTRAL SWANS is that it keeps you on your toes.   At first listen, you can hear these drum beats and such which make this feel like a radio rock song- something along the lines of Neon Trees or Glass Animals.  But there are also these keys within here- which are just great and make the whole song- and at times it kind of skips.  The music, in that way, becomes somewhat trippy and so it's not quite radio rock.

I definitely like and support the idea of someone taking a song that sounds like something on the radio, like that "Heat Waves" song by Glass Animals, and sort of messing with it to where it feels like a feverdream.   ASTRAL SWANS has, in many ways, done that as this song does feel like taking that song and adding elements of Flaming Lips into it.  But this just creates this whole new sound which is what I will now relate with ASTRAL SWANS.

It's not easy to create a new genre, but I feel like ASTRAL SWANS are breaking boundaries here.   Something along the lines of psychedelic rock pop but that probably already has a genre that doesn't sound quite like this.   Within these lyrics are lines such as "I'd tear the whole thing down" and "I never lost control" which do make this song feel more like a mantra, in that way Nirvana wrote lyrics, but it all comes together nicely.

Within these sounds comes a trippy music video.  Sometimes I'd wonder if maybe watching the music video influences the way I hear the song, but in this case I just feel like they're good companions.  Listening to "THE COWARD" without the visuals still provides you those parts where it feels like the song is glitching and that just further enforces the idea of being lost and tripping in the woods we see in the music video.