Swim Deep announce album ‘Hum’ with safe single ‘Pieces of You’
Swim Deep have announced their fifth studio album, Hum, with the project’s opening single, ‘Pieces of You’.
Following up their 2024 album, There’s A Big Star Outside, Swim Deep have taken the shortest break of their career and returned with an easy indie-pop ballad that uses a tried and tested formula without managing to add much in the margins.
The single is accompanied by a music video plucked from the English countryside, in which the Birmingham quintet struggles to plant a flag emblazoned with their original logo in the muddy soil. Keyboardist James Balmont explains the symbolic vision: “That, for me, really sums this album – we’ve been through this struggle, and now we’ve all come together to plant this very victorious feeling.”
Sure enough, the track shows the band in their most united front to date; they meet greater expectations head-on, and seem to have approached the new era with a restorative earnestness, celebrating Bill Ryder-Jones’ production and gesturing towards deeper, meatier themes in their work: “We continue to chase the dream, but now with something deeper at stake,” the band wrote in their Instagram album announcement.
Plus, off the back of a sold-out tour across Thailand and China in December, the band shares that they feel “rejuvenated”, ready to soar back into the realm of distorted indie-rock sprinkled through with melodic guitars and catchy “ooh ooh” vocals that any crowd could latch onto. They stick the landing, but as they look around, something becomes hauntingly obvious: We’ve been here before.
The track shimmers and builds, though it is mastered to hear little distinction between the instruments; it drops away for an acoustic bridge and builds once more in a theatrical outro. Comments in the videos’ music video section show long-time fans of the band close to tears. It strikes me that this is exactly the blessing and the curse of the new single: In looking back at where they’ve been, ‘Pieces of You’ excludes anyone who joins the journey from here on.
We don’t need a music video to tell us that, on ‘Pieces of You’, Swim Deep are somewhat stuck in the mud. Here’s hoping the next track will set them free.
Hum is set for a June 19th release. See the tracklist below.
Swim Deep – ‘Hum’ tracklist
- ‘Pieces Of You’
- ‘You, Me & Mary’
- ‘Photograph’
- ‘Broken’
- ‘The Throw’
- ‘Such A Fool’
- ‘Mud’
- ‘Is There Something Going On’
- ‘In Dreams Alive’
- ‘Lift Me Up’
Never Miss A Beat
The Far Out New Music Newsletter
All the latest New Music from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.