Album: I Wasn’t Born to Lose You
Year: 2015
. . .
And so after the inevitable Swervedriver reunion tours to support their late 2000s reissues, came the not-quite-as-inevitable reunion album, 2015’s I Wasn’t Born to Lose You. As you know, reunion albums can be quite dodgy — insert standard Pixies joke here — but I Wasn’t Born to Lose You stuck with Swervedriver’s core strengths: the lovely, noisy guitar interplay between Adam Franklin and Jimmy Hartridge and Franklin’s dreamy vocals.
And if there wasn’t quite the intensity and speed of Raise and Mezcal Head, well, are you as fast and intense as you were 30 years ago? And as far as I’m concerned, a song like “English Subtitles” would have fit on any of their records, especially the gauzy harmonies on the chorus, which kinda floats all around the room.
Energy heartbreak cries
Like the tears that I see In your eyes
Energy heartbreak please
There’s still darkness on the other side
At the end, Franklin repeats “darkness on the other side” and the rhythm section — bassist Steve George leftover from the 1990s and new drummer Mikey Jones — starts raving down, content to speed up a little instead of a lot, but bringing “English Subtitles” to a suitable end.
Swervedriver followed up I Wasn’t Born to Lose You with 2019’s equally fine Future Ruins, which featured former Supergrass bassist Mick Quinn, and while I wouldn’t start with any of these — start with the Juggernaut Rides ’89-98 compilation and go from there — if you’ve just discovered this band through these posts, then definitely check them out at some point.
“English Subtitles”
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