If I had a nickel for each upstart band in the last 30 years who I said sounded like Swallow, I'd be well off. A criminally underrated record, 1992's Blow by Swallow was one of those releases that seemed to invent dream-pop, a term I didn't even hear until maybe after the millennium or so. Effortlessly blending shoegaze elements and the sort of breathy vocals that anchored mid-period Cocteau Twins offerings, this Swallow album was a sort of one-off masterpiece. It's been neglected, shelved in more record stores than I can count under "B" (as if Blow was the band name), and somewhat forgotten in a few circles, but it's being reissued again this week by 4AD. And thank goodness for that.
Blown collects both Blow and Blowback, the subsequent remix collection. From the New Order throb of single "Sugar Your Mind", to the dreamy miasma of "Taste Like Honey", to the even more diffuse "Lovesleep", this album still stuns from the start. Bands like Dogbite, Whitelands, Winter, and others owe so much to this record that a new listener is apt to think that this is some 2026 group taking cues from those folks. Louise Trehy and Mike Mason crafted something here that has the spark and fuzz of Psychocandy, the rush of Isn't Anything, but the inherent loveliness of Blue Bell Knoll.
In 1992, Blow served up a mood best described then in a less-crowded field of peers as what was on the Cocteaus' Treasure long-player, but with far more energetic guitars in spots. We may take for granted that there are a ton of bands who sound like this now, but this kind of music was rarer and harder to find in the final year of the original Bush presidency. And while acts like Black Tambourine, Lilys, and Swirlies were crafting a uniquely Yankee version of shoegaze mixed with indie back then, Swallow deftly blended British art pop -- the sort that first put 4AD on the radar screens of astute fans -- with a more then-contemporary kind of guitar attack. It was borderline hypnotic in spots, like on the gorgeous "Follow Me Down", or "Ocean", a complex ramble earlier on Blow. And listening to this fine remastering job by Anne Taegart, it's safe to say that these numbers on Blow by Swallow have never sounded this good.
Blown collects all of 1992's Blow and you get the remixes and instrumentals from Blowback, plus a couple of other rarities. The package is stellar, and this fan is so thrilled that this seminal album is now getting the reissue treatment it's deserved for so very long. At one point I barely knew anyone familiar with this record, but with this superb set upon us, it's likely that thousands of folks who weren't even born in 1992 are going to rediscover what might very well be the the Rosetta Stone of dream-pop.
Blown by Swallow is out on Friday from 4AD.
[Photo: Matt Anker]