{"id":2326,"date":"2017-05-04T12:11:24","date_gmt":"2017-05-04T12:11:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-weirds-swarmculture\/"},"modified":"2018-03-21T22:11:01","modified_gmt":"2018-03-21T22:11:01","slug":"review-weirds-swarmculture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-weirds-swarmculture\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Weirds – Swarmculture"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/figure>\n

Psychedelic rock can be a wonderful thing when it’s done well. Hearing Black Lips and Ty Segall create vast swathes of mesmerising noise with minimal effort brings a satisfaction that more synthetic indie bands struggle to deliver. While Leeds quartet Weirds<\/b> take some influence from those outfits, they also aim for a bigger sound on their debut album, \u2018Swarmculture.’<\/i><\/p>\n

Switching the razor wire production of these groups for a fatter, fuzzier tone that has become a staple of British hard rock post-Royal Blood. \u2018Swarmculture’<\/i> threads together a spacey musical canvas with slithering guitar riffs splashed throughout.<\/p>\n

In one sense, this lets Weirds<\/b> experiment with song arrangements, making the album’s biggest hooks feel like a welcome surprise every time they smash out of the speakers. Opener \u2018Things That Crawl’<\/i> demonstrates this by letting 80’s pop synthesisers and twinkling lead guitars build up the tension, before introducing gargantuan fuzzed-up grooves – reminiscent of Swedish stoner rock masters Truckfighters – which brings the song crashing to life. They do this shtick very well.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Yet this also introduces an unequal balance to \u2018Swarmculture’<\/i>, as the calmer moments of haze aren’t as effective. While the swagger of \u2018Phantom’<\/i> and bounce-laden chorus of \u2018Weird Sun’<\/i> demonstrate the band’s gusto, the verses in between those choruses, plus the fully lackadaisical performances in \u2018Crows’<\/i> and \u2018Tunneling’<\/i>, tend to drift too slowly and get lost in themselves, leaving listeners impatient for another big hook.<\/p>\n

There’s a lot of potential exhibited on \u2018Swarmculture’<\/i> and repeated plays will make the difficult parts of these songs come out of their shells. For the most part, Weirds<\/b> prove that they excel in the catchier and groovier side of psychedelic rock. With more experience and focus on their strengths, their follow-up could be something special, but that special thing just isn’t here yet.<\/p>\n

3\/5<\/p>\n

\u2018Swarmculture’<\/i> by Weirds<\/b> is out now on Alcopop! Records<\/b>.<\/p>\n

Weirds<\/b> links: Facebook<\/a>|Twitter<\/a>|Soundcloud<\/a><\/p>\n

Words by Andy Davidson (@AndyrfDavidson<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Psychedelic rock can be a wonderful thing when it’s done well. Hearing Black Lips and Ty Segall create vast swathes of mesmerising noise with minimal effort brings a satisfaction that more synthetic indie bands struggle to deliver. While Leeds quartet Weirds take some influence from those outfits, they also aim for a bigger sound on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":16315,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[306,15033,15021,1631,703],"class_list":["post-2326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-album-reviews","tag-alcopop-records","tag-andrew-davidson","tag-andy-davidson","tag-swarmculture","tag-weirds"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nReview: Weirds - Swarmculture - Already Heard Staging<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Psychedelic rock can be a wonderful thing when it’s done well. Hearing Black Lips and Ty Segall create vast swathes of mesmerising noise with\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Review: Weirds - Swarmculture - Already Heard Staging\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Psychedelic rock can be a wonderful thing when it’s done well. Hearing Black Lips and Ty Segall create vast swathes of mesmerising noise with\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-weirds-swarmculture\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Already Heard Staging\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AlreadyHeard\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-05-04T12:11:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-03-21T22:11:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/tumblr_op9yf0NCOi1r8no6so9_1280.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Andrew Davidson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@alreadyhearduk\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@alreadyhearduk\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Andrew Davidson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Review: Weirds - Swarmculture - Already Heard Staging","description":"Psychedelic rock can be a wonderful thing when it’s done well. Hearing Black Lips and Ty Segall create vast swathes of mesmerising noise with","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Review: Weirds - Swarmculture - Already Heard Staging","og_description":"Psychedelic rock can be a wonderful thing when it’s done well. Hearing Black Lips and Ty Segall create vast swathes of mesmerising noise with","og_url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-weirds-swarmculture\/","og_site_name":"Already Heard Staging","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AlreadyHeard\/","article_published_time":"2017-05-04T12:11:24+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-03-21T22:11:01+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/tumblr_op9yf0NCOi1r8no6so9_1280.jpg","width":1,"height":1,"type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Andrew Davidson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@alreadyhearduk","twitter_site":"@alreadyhearduk","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Andrew Davidson","Estimated reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-weirds-swarmculture\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-weirds-swarmculture\/"},"author":{"name":"Andrew Davidson","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/person\/e32d2500b34afa459324477cb4410353"},"headline":"Review: Weirds – Swarmculture","datePublished":"2017-05-04T12:11:24+00:00","dateModified":"2018-03-21T22:11:01+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-weirds-swarmculture\/"},"wordCount":345,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-weirds-swarmculture\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/tumblr_op9yf0NCOi1r8no6so9_1280.jpg","keywords":["Alcopop! Records","Andrew Davidson","Andy Davidson","Swarmculture","Weirds"],"articleSection":["Album Reviews"],"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-weirds-swarmculture\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-weirds-swarmculture\/","url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-weirds-swarmculture\/","name":"Review: Weirds - Swarmculture - Already Heard Staging","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-weirds-swarmculture\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-weirds-swarmculture\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/tumblr_op9yf0NCOi1r8no6so9_1280.jpg","datePublished":"2017-05-04T12:11:24+00:00","dateModified":"2018-03-21T22:11:01+00:00","description":"Psychedelic rock can be a wonderful thing when it’s done well. Hearing Black Lips and Ty Segall create vast swathes of mesmerising noise with","inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-weirds-swarmculture\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-weirds-swarmculture\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/tumblr_op9yf0NCOi1r8no6so9_1280.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/tumblr_op9yf0NCOi1r8no6so9_1280.jpg"},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#website","url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/","name":"Already Heard Staging","description":"Covering the best in alternative music as best as we can","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#organization","name":"Already Heard","url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/AH-relaunch-logo-white-bg.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/AH-relaunch-logo-white-bg.jpg","width":500,"height":500,"caption":"Already Heard"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AlreadyHeard\/","https:\/\/x.com\/alreadyhearduk","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/alreadyheard\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/already-heard\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/AlreadyHeardMusic","https:\/\/tiktok.com\/@alreadyhearduk","https:\/\/www.threads.net\/@alreadyheard"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/person\/e32d2500b34afa459324477cb4410353","name":"Andrew Davidson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1b774e73ef804d6bb950dfb8ec4e94556e9d5d7e5ca82ec6c7b1a459877d2ea5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1b774e73ef804d6bb950dfb8ec4e94556e9d5d7e5ca82ec6c7b1a459877d2ea5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1b774e73ef804d6bb950dfb8ec4e94556e9d5d7e5ca82ec6c7b1a459877d2ea5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Andrew Davidson"},"description":"This is for the hearts still beating","url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/author\/andrewdavidson\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2326"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2326\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37364,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2326\/revisions\/37364"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}