Album of the Week: The Arcs honour Richard Swift with groovy eulogy, ‘Electrophonic Chronic’
A lot has happened since The Arcs released their first record back in 2018. Aside from all the obvious external stuff, the band lost their founding member, the legendary Richard Swift. “This new record is all about honouring Swift,” frontman Dan Auerbach explains. “It’s a way for us to say goodbye to him, by revisiting him playing and laughing, singing. It was heavy at times, but I think it was really helpful to do it.”
Predominantly, the album, Electrophonic Chronic, is about transcendence—about overcoming emotional turmoil and trying to feel the warmth in the sunshine of memories rather than cowering in the shade of sequestered grief. Thus, it seems fitting kismet that the late luminary features on the track ‘Sunshine’ which was recorded shortly before his passing at the age of 41. “Won’t you help me see the light?” the lyrics ask, as the song builds towards the basking catharsis of an exultant finale.
The rest of the album reaches for a similar sense of ebullient defiance borne from the mellow grounding of mortal cognizance. It succeeds. In doing so it pretty much achieves the essence of what art is all about at its best. It buzzes along, alchemically creating a crock of gold, so to speak. And buzzes is the operative word—it’s not a heavy album by any means, with a cursory listen it might sound like simple summery music built on The Arcs’ typical genre-bending ingenuity.
For instance, listening now, in the darkest depths of mid-winter with a cost-of-living crisis causing the vinyl to form a layer of frost, it seems to radiate just a touch of warmth, and draw a little more sun in through the window. Moreover, its progressive production blend of subverted genre tropes and seamless synchronicity urges you to look ahead, and not just beyond the curtains.
This is sustained throughout the album. It doesn’t deviate too far from the swirl of its vibrant sound with Mariachi-like horns, soulful string synth sound beds, bluesy guitar riffs, and deep drum machine rhythms. Fear not, it isn’t too much of the same thing, Auerbach’s sense of melody takes care of that, it simply creates a smooth-flowing record that breezes along to completion without any blips or major blemishes. The result helps to lift the spirits of the album’s deep meaning and it should do the same for the listener too.
With the pedigree in the band and solid production to boot, the music makes light work of a monumental task. Swift was a sore loss honoured by all of his peers in the music industry. As Fleet Foxes sang in the wake of his passing, he was “a gift lifted far before his will,” but Electrophonic Chronic ensures he keeps on giving. And this time, it’s in quite a groovy fashion to boot.
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