We wrote about the debut single of Portland’s Elly Swope back in October, describing how the sound tears up any preconceptions about what solo music can entail. Now the full release, It Feels the Same Everytime, is out, and it is fair to say that the album continues to stretch such ideas, forming what is a far-reaching and energetic collection of songs that’s not content to sit in a small box.
Out now on Rue Defense, It Feels the Same Everytime was first conceived in 2016, though it wasn’t until 2018 that she felt the time was right to return to the project and realise its true form. First laying down two tracks with Victor Nash at Destination: Universe, Swope doubled down a few months later to record the rest of the EP, and the runaway energy of the release directly keyed into the sense of inspiration and direction garnered from such a process.
Which is to say, this does not feel like an EP of songs recorded for the sake of recording. Rather, the fierce and often frantic energy flows with a real sense of purpose, as though they would be running through the head of Elly Swope whether or not they were committed to tape. Opener ‘Arrow’ is the perfect example, simmering into life with shuffling drums and growing into a wonky and bombastic indie rock anthem. Like much of the release, the track blends small observations on the mundane intricacies of life with far deeper considerations, exploring how the inherently personal is formed by the global or universal. As the bio explains:
The EP centers around the personal, the universal, and how they commingle. Stemming from a break up with a long-time partner, Swope questions her identity, her relationship, and her very place in the world, all while creating interlocking hooks and textures that draw the listener to the very heart of the album.
This is made clear on ‘Patterns, another rampant journey through various rock spheres, Swope’s lyrics pitched somewhere between realist and provocative, and though ‘6.8’ slows the tempo, the mood prevails. The lonely, spacey synths create a sense of ambivalence, some fault or crack in the once-solid structure of identity, though the song soon gathers itself into a whirlwind finale that could be Elly Swope lashing out against uncertainty, or else leaning back into it, accepting ambiguity.
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“If the answer is to be the worst part of me,” Swope sings on the angular ‘Concrete’, “give it all to the beast.” Such a reckless attitude marks the track, the ominous sense of fury lurking within its depths building with volcanic threat. Whether the eruption comes or not depends on your expectations, with the instrumentation squalling but Swope’s vocals never quite reaching a promised climax, though you could say closer ‘Idea’ represents the blast. The track is the most rapid and insistent on the record, with the only breakdowns in tempo serving to ratchet up the pressure for the next burst.
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It Feels the Same Everytime is out via Rue Defense and you can get it from the Elly Swope Bandcamp page.
