Seen as a spiritual successor to Swell Tone’s Summer of Sad comp on Z Tapes, the release features takes on tracks by everyone from Bruce Springsteen and Neil Young to Björk, Mazzy Star and even Mr Rogers. Better yet, all proceeds are going to Homeward Bound Animal Rescue, which gives dogs a second chance at life. So when not support the release and relax in the knowledge that you are helping a good cause too?

The release is ostensibly one of love songs, but such a description belies the depth and ambiguity of emotions on offer. Opening the album, Basement Revolver gloss a layer of melancholy sweetness over Springsteen’s ‘I’m On Fire’, subtle percussion and winding guitar allowing Chrisy Hurn’s vocals to come to the fore. Changing tack completely, Anna McClellan takes on ‘Dear Someone’ by Gillian Welch, transforming the original into a romantic piano song that sounds haunted by a sense of long-lost nostalgia, as if it’s floating across a quiet room from a war-time gramophone.

This diversity continues across the rest of the compilation. Yes these are all love songs, but stylistically no two sound quite alike. From Lucy Stone’s heartfelt guitar ballad (a contemporary update of Bonnie Raitt’s ‘I Can’t Make You Love Me’) to the gentle droning pulse and ghostly vocals of Ora Cogan’s Björk cover, the album twists and turns through styles and emotions, from naked declarations to heart-broken longing to that lingering wistful feeling that’s woven into the fabric of things. There’s no sugary Hollywood sentiment here, rather love in its true, maddening form, so closely related to pain and sadness as to make the distinction obsolete.

The mood is perhaps best captured in Rosie Tucker‘s singular take on Connie Converse’s ‘How Sad, How Lovely’, a track which manages to hold tender beauty and creeping loss in the same hand. “How sad, how lovely,” go Converse’s lyrics. “How short, how sweet / to see the sunset / at the end of a street.” To take notice of the small wonders of the world is to notice their slow dissolution, but to take no notice at all is to already have died.

Sixteen Jackies lift the mood with a bouncy rendition of Pete Townsend’s ‘Let My Love Open The Door’, before Honey Moon arrived with their sultry take on ‘Lovefool’ by The Cardigans. Both tracks come with a technicolour finish, their sounds so lush and textured that you can wrap yourself within them, which juxtaposes well with Porridge Radio‘s stripped back version of Neil Young’s ‘Only Love Can Take Your Heart’. However, despite the track’s stark simplicity, the earnest tone and authentic delivery forms an enveloping texture of its own, radiating warmth and a kind of nostalgic grace.

The collection ends with a a hushed and intimate cover of Mr Rogers song ‘It’s You I Like’ by Ings, Inge Chiles delivering Rogers’s trademark earnestness and sentimentality in a near-whisper. The gently plucked guitar keeps its voice down too, leading to a finale as quiet and peaceful as it is suffused with feeling.

Summer of Love is out now digitally and on cassette, and you can get it from Bandcamp.

The post Summer of Love: A Compilation appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Various Swell Sounds is a new collaborative playlist series from Shana Hartzel of Swell Tone, Jon Chin of Cereal and Sounds, and myself. Instead of constantly exchanging tracks amongst each other, we have decided to work together to bring them to more ears. Every month, we will match a selection of our old and brand new favourites to a specific theme, as decided on a revolving basis month by month.

Following the dangerous freedom of Shana’s Unguarded Beach, and the angsty heartbreak of Jon’s Violet’s Aren’t Blue, the third edition sees us take up the mantle with something altogether more unsettling. Because, let’s be honest, we live in unsettling times. Silicon Valley is (allegedly) controlling our elections, Russian spies are being attacked on foreign soil and Infowars has a White House press pass. Yes, we’re paranoid. But are we paranoid enough?

1. Crystal Stilts – Alien Rivers
2. Sixteen Jackies – VHS #1
3. The Paranoyds – Sleep Paralysis
4. The Buttertones – Ghost Safari
5. Total Control – Stonehenge
6. WINT – Dark Matter) We (Endless
7. Iguana Death Cult – Whispers
8. Screaming Females – Glass House
9. Vundabar – No People to Person
10. Liza Anne – Paranoia
11. Big Air – Mr. Mind Control
12. Matias Aguayo & The Desdemonas – Cold Fever
13. Baby Brains – Walk Alone (The Cave Collection)
14. Pye Corner Audio – The Black Mill Video Tape
15. Protomartyr – Here Is The Thing
16. Eddy Current Suppression Ring – Colour Television
17. Silly Pillows – Figment of Your Imagination
18. Stef Chura – Becoming Shadows
19. JACK – Fear Of
20. Eerie Wanda – Happy Hard Times
21. Cave & Lenderson – Friedgeman
22. La Luz – Cicada
23. Snakadaktal – Fall Underneath
24. Institute – Familiar Stranger
25. NOTS – Fluorescent Sunset
26. CLINIC – The Return of Evil Bill
27. Lying Down – Betty and Barney
28. Dr Dog – Listening In
29. Timber Timbre – Creep on Creepin On
30. Good Good Blood – Dinosauria

Spotify:

Playmoss:

Artwork by Liam Doyle, logo by Stolen Chapstick

The post Various Swell Sounds #3: Paranoid Style appeared first on Various Small Flames.