Ejector Seat Reservation

It always seemed kinda weird that Swervedriver got tagged as shoegaze: they might have shared banks of guitar pedals with the likes of Ride and Slowdive, but their songs weren’t vaguer than a stoner’s faux-revelatory rambling. Instead, Swervedriver’s first album, Raise, was subtly surreal, zoned out and spacey; Mezcal Head was bolshy, and armed to devastate America, which didn’t happen, natch. Ejector Seat Reservation turned inward, instead; it’s a deeply strange album, full of dream-machine flickers that tip purloined melodies into a groggy, psychedelic headspace. The songs are Adam Franklin’s best batch yet, and now they’ve turned their back on road narratives, Swervedriver’s material is so much more affecting – “The Birds” is Franklin’s most beautiful melody, best reflecting Ejector Seat Reservation’s bittersweet taste.