We first wrote about Portland, Oregon’s Elly Swope back in October, describing how single ‘Idea‘ “charts the deconstruction and subsequent reconstruction of identity that follows the end of a relationship.” Later that year, Swope released debut EP, It Feels the Same Every Time, on Rue Defense, a record that “formed a far-reaching and energetic collection of songs that’s not content to sit in a small box.” Using this varied style, Swope created an earnest and pressing engagement with the human experience, happy to zoom in on small details or take in the bigger picture with a wide angle lens.
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 […] Like much of the release, [opener ‘Arrow’] 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.
This summer sees Elly Swope return with a brand new single, ‘Habits’. Again released with Rue Defense, the track has a wily edge, the mellow guitar sliced by Ayal Alves’s serated synth line and driven forward by a confident rumble of drums. Swope’s distinctively crooked delivery only amplifies this effect, the sardonic tone feeling like a mere surface, like a layer of oil containing a depth beneath.
You go back to your father’s house
Where all your favourite ghosts hang around
and when you see ’em what do you talk about?
Because you know I wonder what you say about me.
Photo by Jeremiah Larsen