Press
The Big Takeover's Jack Rabid Digs Adam Franklin's "Bolts of Melody"
October 9, 2007
"Bolts" makes for one of the most cosmic psych-folk LPs of this decade"
adam franklin
bolts of melody
(Hi-Speed Soul)
After nine long, cruel years, the ex-Swervedriver leader finally releases an LP that retrieves a thread from his incredible, never-forgotten Oxford, England foursome. For nigh on a decade, famished fans received only an odd ambient-electro, half-instrumental excursion by Franklin’s side band, Toshack Highway (2000), followed by a smattering of short solo EPs strangely also released under that moniker. By finally using his own nom, and fashioning an album out of some of those obscure tracks and new ones, Bolts is the theme he’s threatened through these ‘00s.
Note, I said “a” thread, not “the.” If Bolts picks up where the Swervies left off, it’s the ruminative, slower, spooky-mellow, picked-guitar lovelies Franklin worked into the mix late in the game, like 99th Dream’s “She Weaves a Tender Trap” (1998) and Ejector Seat Reservation’s “Son of Jaguar ‘E’” (1995; and farther back, b-sides such as “Mars” and “Cars Converge on Paris”). If you’re looking for a “bolt” of archetypal Swervedriver punishment, you get only two: the opening, second update of his rare Swervedriver b-side “Seize the Day” (with better sound than 2001’s Everyday, Rock ‘n’ Roll is Saving My Life EP demo) and the new “Shining Somewhere.” Both are reminiscent of Ejector’s more restrained, but still simmering roar. Hurrah!
Otherwise, “space travel rock ‘n’ roll,” indeed. Yet the other 11 languid tracks still manage to spotlight Franklin’s abundant talent as an inventive player/writer. Of these, “Sundown” is topnotch, as is “Carney Island Baby,” both eliciting his unsullied, cooed melodic trills. And from the trippy, ‘60s Pink Floyd-inspired “Syd”s Eyes” (with fitting Syd Barrett-esque organ) to two updates of last year’s digital EP track “Birdsong,” Bolts makes for one of the most cosmic psych-folk LPs of this decade. Bathe in it. (highspeedsoul.com)
