The Swell Season Strict Joy vs U2 All That You Can't Leave Behind

Imagine David and Goliath where Goliath works his way up from humble beginnings to become a wizen but lovable juggernaut, friend to all, champion of the downtrodden and generally a hip dude.  Plucky David, I hope you've brought some extra rocks.

Swell Season Strict Joy begins with Low Rising, a feisty, melancholy folk song that takes place on the edge of a breakup.  Feisty melancholy folk is actually a pretty good description for much of the album, with most of the songs looking at the space formed between two people.  The album is polished and many of the songs are whispered close and quiet.

Highlights from Strict Joy include The Verb, which is a contradiction of beautiful descants and two lives falling apart.  I Have Loved You Wrong is the prettiest and most delicate song on the album, meant to be listened to with headphones in a dark room.

Unfortunately there is little joy when you leave out the feisty, as happens on Fantasy Man and Two Tongues.  A few songs, like Paper Cup and Feeling the Pull, are a bit too earnest or bend a bit too much toward a generic folk sound.

Since I'd never heard of Swell Season before, I gorged on Strict Joy for a week to see if I could approximate my familiarity with U2.  I'm not sure I got there, but I feel like I blazed a trail.

There is not much new I can say about U2.  How would All That You Can't Leave Behind sound to someone who has never heard it before?  That question probably can't be answered in the universe we live in, but I'll take a hypothetical stab at it.

While Strict Joy looks inward, All tries to pack all of reality into fifty minutes.  The opening song, Beautiful Day, pulls us from the farthest point of darkness to see that the sun was rising the whole time:

See the Bedouin fires at night
See the oil fields at first light
And see the bird with a leaf in her mouth
After the flood all the colors came out 

Most songs on the album work, even when a bit strained.  Phrases like "A mole, digging in a hole, Digging up my soul" slide by, but just barely.  But while other songs on the album take on big topics and succeed, the last song, Grace, tries just a bit too hard and flops.

Where All really succeeds is the music itself.  Big topics don't need an acquired taste and most songs on the album hook you instantly and have you humming or singing along.  While I built an appreciation for Swell Season's Strict Joy after a week of solid play, All's instant appeal doesn't seem any cheaper for its accessibility.

All really is a bolder album.  It pulls the covers off our world and folds them back almost as the application part of a sermon.  The themes go big and suddenly the space between people seems small.

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Decision:  All That You Can't Leave Behind, U2
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