Artist: Swearwords

Artist: Swearwords

Links: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Swearwords/273879625979733

swearwordsmusic.com

Swearwords is a relentlessly poppy five-piece fronted by Neil Bhandari, who approaches Ben Kweller and Jeff Tweedy in talent and personality. Having the opportunity to review two EPs, 2011's Ration the Joy (three songs) and 2012's The Central Standard (four), we see a consistency in product that is also notable for its infectious piano punctuating savvy song structures.

The standout track is "West of Western" with Neil's expert vocal phrasing, guitarist Milan Bhandari's choppy chords-as-bridge/pre-chorus, and Susan Berch's piano climbing into "now everybody's running / now everybody's looking cool." Over both EPs, Susan and Milan demand the spotlight as they trade guitar and piano, and we end up enamored by both. They alternate, as on "Bullet Blue," which begins with a tense guitar riff, is replaced by pleasant piano, and gives way to an early-in-the-song guitar solo with classic Chicago tone.

"Austin TX" features a narrator describing without regret a relationship done gone (to Austin). It could have been written by Wilco with its chill tempo, hushed harmonies, and thoughtful lyrics like, "if we'd only eat when we're hungry / everything would taste like love / if you would've known any better / then I'd have never had any fun." At the other end of the spectrum, we get catchy barn-burner choruses on "Sleepwalker": "I'm in love and it's about time (get it right)," which are nicely set up by an always appropriate rhythm section.

"Walking is a Sport for One" introduces more tools in Swearwords' pop arsenal: Los Campesinos!-style male/female vocal interplay ("always been and it always will be"), as well as organ (instead of straight piano), both unchaining the promising pianist from her piano bench and second mic. And though I'm not sold on walking as an ostensible subject matter for a song/hook, it is the verses of "Walking" that have Swearwords sounding like the collection of irrepressible talents it is (newspaper hats; side streets sharing the silence).

On "Almost Gary," and unlike most of us, Neil is at his best when high (that is, high in the range), "don't dare compare / and don't trust what you hear / I been back in this town / for the last hundred years / would write clever verses / but they'd sound too rehearsed / threw out my pens, pages, guitars and words." With this lyric, Neil's narrator takes to task cleverness, while ending the song with a lyric that is, well, clever, "honey / no one here thinks we're funny / it's okay / I don't think they'd laugh anyway." A line like that (especially to end a song), considered in light of the whole, proves it's possible to be both clever and talented. Swearwords certainly are.

*** The author of this review, Jimmy Cole, plays the sabar for the following band: http://youtu.be/tMS73-1kCr8