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Certain Songs #2592: Swearin’ – “Grow into a Ghost”

April 17, 2023 by Jim Connelly

Album: Fall into the Sun
Year: 2018

. . .

After releasing a pair of well-regarded indie-pop albums in the early 2010’s, the Philly-based band Swearin’ broke up when their founders Alison Crutchfield and Kyle Gilbride did. However, sometimes you realize that musical chemistry is even harder to find than romantic chemistry, and they reunited for what I think is their best album, 2018’s Fall into the Sun.

The highlight from Fall into the Sun is “Grow into a Ghost,” which starts off with Gilbride winding a corkscrew lead over Crutchfield’s classic punk rhythm guitar: fuzz fuzz and more fuzz! After a long intro than you might expect, Crutchfield is hanging out in New York City thinking about someone who isn’t anywhere near the place.

I write you ceaselessly and abstracted
I hang out with old friends
And they unknowingly remind me
Of who I was before we met
You were somewhere out in the desert
You frame the natural light perfectly
Will you come back soon and
Let me love you completely?

Then on the chorus, her voice circles around itself while her guitar totally drops out.

I watch you
I watch you
I watch you
I watch you
I watch you
I watch you
I watch you
I watch you grow into a ghost

Given that her voice is otherwise buried in the mix — as will always be the fashion of the indie-pop times — it’s clear that she wanted what is actually a very sweet sentiment to be heard: I want to be with you for the rest of your life. And maybe a bit longer. If that’s OK.

While all the desperate people around me
Breathe life into objects with certainty
The likelihood of death in this very cab I’m in
Will be today’s undoing
All the desperate people just like me
Breathe life into objects with certainty
The likelihood of death on this corner I’m standing on will be my own undoing

After that, it’s speedy loud parts and quieter parts and guitar leads and “IwatchyouIwatchyouIwatchyouIwatchyou” until the song ends.

“Grow into a Ghost”

“Grow Into A Ghost” Official Music Video

“Grow into a Ghost” Live on Audiotree, 2018

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Filed Under: Certain Songs Tagged With: Grow into A Ghost, Swearin

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Previously on Medialoper

  • Certain Songs #2627: Talking Heads – “This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)”
  • Certain Songs #2626: Talking Heads – “Burning Down The House”
  • Certain Songs #2625: Talking Heads – “Crosseyed and Painless (Cherry Hill 11-08-1980)”
  • Certain Songs #2624: Talking Heads – “Houses in Motion (Cherry Hill 11-08-1980)”
  • Certain Songs #2623: Talking Heads – “The Great Curve (Central Park 08-27-1980)”

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