How do you best the anti-guitar-god bluster of arguably the most sonically bold and melodically sophisticated band of England’s shoegaze era? If you’re Swervedriver’s unflappable former leader, Adam Franklin, you don’t even try. You simply work off the various templates for greatness set forth by your former outfit, which, quite frankly, spewed out enough novel ideas to sustain a half-dozen indie-rock careers. Which brings us to Franklin’s latest, I Could Sleep For A Thousand Years (Second Motion), whose initial tracks were hammered out in New York late last year with his newly minted backup outfit, Bolts Of Melody. Sleep is Franklin’s most well-rounded collection to date, balancing the more laid-back guitar balladry and pop sensibilities of his last two solo albums with the ornery, volatile spark of vintage Swervedriver largely missing on those efforts. Franklin will be guest-editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Q&A with him as well as our 2009 Lost Classics post on Swervedriver’s Mezcal Head.
Franklin: Nicky Lianos is an Australian film director living in London, and Dead Happy is her third short film. Released via Sky Movies (U.K.) in June, it’s the story of a work force of grim reapers living in London, one of whom falls for a melancholy and potentially suicidal young poet. Alice Lowe plays the reaper in question and is a bit of a hero of mine, as she played Dr. Liz Asher in Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace (or, rather, she played Madeleine Wool, an actress playing Dr. Liz Asher; if this is confusing, just go seek it out!) as well as appearing in The Mighty Boosh and other Boosh-affiliated productions. And the treacly Margo Guryan-inspired folk-pop tunes on the soundtrack are truly a wonder to behold, so go check it out!
Video after the jump.
