SWMRS: Drive North review.

rattlemag
Feb 24, 2016
4 min read

Drive North is the 3rd studio album by Oakland band SWMRS. However this is their first album under their current name. The band consists of Cole Becker, Max Becker, Seb Mueller and Joey Armstrong.

Drive North starts off strong with Harry Dean. This song gives off so much energy even just in its opening guitar riff. Cole Becker provides an exhilarating vocal performance here and showcases some excellent screams very reminiscent of early punk rock music. Overall Harry Dean is an amazing way to kick off Drive North and sets the tone for the rest of the album.

Harry Dean leads straight into Brb, the second track of the album. With such a catchy chorus this song is hard not to love. This track is made incredibly strong by the lyrical content and a brilliant vocal performance. Although not the best song Drive North has to offer Brb provides a great hook that has been stuck in my head for days.

Miss Yer Kiss feels much softer and more poppy than the 2 tracks before it although this is not a bad at all. This song offers a lot in terms of its writing and production values. The chorus here is just as great as the one in Brb if not slightly better. The vocal part is excellent yet again with such an enthusiastic performance behind it. The instrumentals here also feel very tight. Mixed with a slightly glitchy style this is a song that has me coming back for repeated listens.

Turn Up is by far one of my favourite songs on Drive North. This opens up with just Max Becker singing and playing guitar. This quickly progresses into a lively chorus with the rest of the band joining in. The bass part in this song is amazing. Although not immediately noticeable it gives off such a fun feeling that truly makes this song great. Turn Up is an outstanding surf punk song that completely deserves a place on this album.

The fifth track is Figuring It Out. This song begins with gang vocals that really shows the energetic tone of this song. This feeling is kept up throughout the song in the verses. The lyrical content is strong yet again. My favourite part of Figuring It Out is the guitar solo. It shows off Cole Backers skill as a guitarist in an incredibly entertaining way.

Ruining My Pretending is by far the weakest track on this album in my opinion. Max's vocals feel much weaker than they did on Turn Up. I don't really have much to say about this track. Although I dont necessarily dislike it I feel the album would not be hurt by this track being taken away.

Uncool brings back the distorted guitars and the more punk focused sound found in the first 2 tracks of Drive North. Although not as strong as songs like Brb it certainly is a good addition to the album. The roaring guitar part truly makes this song. The guitar solo here is insane and leaves me in awe everytime I hear it.

Miley. I love this song. The slow start is complemented perfectly by an explosive chorus and a very raw sound. It is very obvious that this song is about Miley Cyrus. Cole Becker describes her as a punk rock queen due to her actions in the past few years. The glitchy production style seen earlier in Miss Yer Kiss works so well here. In my opinion Miley is the best song on Drive North and it stood out to me straight away on my first listen.

D'You Have a Car keeps the energy from Uncool and Miley and culminates into an unforgettable chorus with a very heavy feel. Cole Becker has some great screams towards the end of the track that really make D'You Have a car a solid start to the last third of the album.

Hannah is a very odd song. It's nothing like anything else shown on Drive North but surprisingly does not feel out of place at all. It is written from the point of view of a stereotypical California girl. Hannah feels incredibly unique overall even though the instrumental part of the song is very quiet and percussion based. Once again the very glitchy production style returns here and works amazingly well.

The penultimate song of Drive North is Silver Bullet. This goes back to the softer style of the songs from the middle of the album but with slightly more of an indie rock sound. I feel this would have worked very well as the final song. Second to last works just as well though and saves the final song for something amazing.

The last track also happens to be the title track. Drive North tells us about the bands hatred of LA. This contrasts the way the city is described by other bands and artists who claim to love it. This song is pure punk rock. It has brutally honest lyrics mixed with some of the most aggressive vocals and instrumentals on the album. I really love this as a closing track as it completely embraces the punk rock influence and creates something so special out of it.

Overall I think Drive North is an incredibly strong album and has made SWMRS one of my favourite bands.This is by far the best album I've heard released in 2016. I look forward to whatever the future holds for SWMRS as a band and will eagerly wait for new music. I can't give Drive North a perfect score though as it did have a song that was considerably weaker than the rest of the album.

RattleRating: 9/10