Fighting Trees

Album Review

The Swimmers play modestly accomplished pop/rock with a sense of bounce and whimsy on their debut album. Steve Yutzy-Burkey, who wrote all but one of the songs, has a slightly Paul McCartney-esque sense of melody and daintily fanciful phrasing. The artful background harmonies may recall late-period Beatles and the late '60s/early '70s in general, and the arrangements vary between the power poppish and the kind of mildly eccentric piano-dominated midtempo ditty (like "Heaven") you might associate with McCartney or, to throw out a more unusual reference, Thunderclap Newman. Upper-register, plaintive vocals are in abundance, and the light chamber-like orchestration on "Fighting Trees" is a welcome, less expected baroque touch.