In the age of the quick fix – where we eat EZ Mac because regular macaroni and cheese just takes forever to cook – patience is truly a virtue. Thus, the debut album from Portland’s The Swords Project is an especially refreshing listen. Each of the seven tracks relies on the ancient technique of anticipation, building songs incrementally from soft, fluttering electronic textures to peaks of bombastic drumming. The band’s carefully constructed pastiche can be as tranquil as Air and as vigorously poppy as Modest Mouse. Entertainment is the kind of record demanding to be taken as a whole, and plays like a gathering storm – patient, looming, and ultimately explosive.
Appeared in the September 2003 issue of Rockpile magazine.