Amazon.com
Building somber, vaguely ominous songs from slabs of textured, melodic guitar rock, Swell don't lend themselves to easy summations. For All the Beautiful People features a continuing (from 1993's 41) emphasis on album cohesion, employing a brooding loop of "rainy night" sound effects (on "Pink Pink Rain") to bridge the two "sections" of the album--an introspective, darker first half and a more upbeat second half. The splendor of the album, however, is in the individual passages, such as the lilting woodwind that runs through "Something to Do" or the fuzzy guitar line that shakes up "Blackmilk." Like interpreting beautiful carvings on ancient cave walls, sorting out For All the Beautiful People's juicy bits proves to be a pleasurably befuddling endeavor when such lovely discoveries lie waiting in Swell's musical catacombs. --Matthew Cooke

Alternative Press
Compelling, slow-building melodies power many of its tracks, built atop of heavy layers of feedback and effects-laden vocals.... [T]his album forges an atmosphere that's as warm and enveloping as a thick wool blanket.

New Musical Express
...The songwriting core of guitarist and vocalist David Freel and bassist Monte Vallier have fleshed out their slo-fi rumblings with sparks of keyboard trickery and, intriguingly on "Make Up Your Mind," recorded some cows sheltering from a thunderstorm. For these unfazeable souls at least, this almost constitutes a radical new direction.

All Customer Reviews

Avg. Customer Rating: 5 Stars
Number of Reviews: 3

5/5 It'll blow you away, LITERALLY, January 7, 2000
Reviewer: Matt Nielsen from Issaquah, Washington

Swell is one of the most amazing and innovative bands I have ever heard. I own all their CD's (unless there is some import I haven't spotted) and listen to them nearly every day. I don't see how they are nnot on the top of the charts right now because frankly, they are fantastic. I swear, the first time I listened fo them, I was obsessed. And you will be too (unless you already are). When my dad picked up FOR ALL THE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE, I wasn't expecting much, knowing about the new drummer. But I found that I couldn't get it out of my head! I was humming TODAY for hours on end in school. And don't get me wrong, FOR ALL THE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE is not SWELL's only good CD. WELL? is great, TOO MANY DAYS WITHOUT THINKING is another good one. SWELL is a great band. I greatly encourage you to check them out.

5/5 Stars why isn't THIS a chart-topper?, April 19, 1999
Reviewer: silver_rocket69@hotmail.com from Detroit, MI

in a perfect world, swell would be #1 pushing more units off the racks then mcdonalds pushes burgers. but it's not a perfect world and, you know what? i like the fact that they are one of the best kept secrets around.

"off in my head" is circus music and gives me some serious chills. same with "something to do" and with "blackmilk." who can't enjoy the dark humor of the lines "you're black as milk and milk ain't black / i love your mind / i'm being kind / this stupid thing is wasting all my time."

it's all in the name-> swell is swell.

5/5 Stars strange..., October 18, 1998
Reviewer: kuiter@xs4all.nl

My wife's 1st remark was: "Oh, easy listening this time? At least it is something different". Mine is more: "Well, they've gone all the way to Bristol, it seems. (or at least to Portishead)" ....but it is gooooood!!!!

Swell were once lumped in with the lo-fi brigade, though it's hard to imagine that now. For All The Beautiful People is an accomplished album, polished from the shiny soul horns of "Everything is Good" right down to the padlocked drums-and-Rhodes groove of "Make Up Your Mind." Crackle and distortion are expertly deployed, former masters now in the service of a band that can use backward guitar and classy vocal harmonies like splashes of color on its canvas.

What Swell still have in common with the lo-fi brigade is their passionate interaction with the songs. All of this record's sophisticated production techniques can't obscure the voice that spits out the misery and spite of "Today" and "Blackmilk," or the emotive playing that gives exuberant life to "I Hate Chrismas" and "Everything Is Good." Even the cicada and farm animal noises that prelude "Blackmilk" jump out of the speakers, suggesting they're the product of endless invention and not jaded studio tomfoolery.

If Swell keep feeding their songs and arrangements with this much enthusiasm, their next album just might burst into the view of the mainstream. For now, those lucky enough to come across For All The Beautiful People have plenty to keep them busy.

Yeah, they're still around, and we should all be thanking the deities of our choice for that. Swell are still the shit, breaking down any potential resistance with a gritty, clockwork sound and a casual mastery of mood that their peers would kill for. And while other bands have excelled in low-key rocking hypnosis (Luna, Bedhead) or melodic mid-tempo cyber-indie seduction (Creeper Lagoon), no one, but no one, sounds quite like Swell. A lot of that distinctiveness can be traced to David Freel's mesmerizing acoustic strum-cycles, layered electric screech and ever-so-deadpan whisper. But it goes beyond that, from the easy yet relentless groove the band generates, to Freel and main partner/bassist Monte Vallier's well-honed recording techniques (even with a change of drummers, the drum sound alone marks this as a Swell album).

Reclusive studio moles in the fine San Francisco tradition of the Residents and Chrome, Swell seems to exist outside of time, unaffected by current indie-rock tendencies. In the outside world, post-punk bands may have grown more open to a certain rambling, hippified looseness in the last decade or so, but Swell aren't having any of that: every second of this album sounds as if it was recorded with a stopwatch in one hand and a metronome in the other. That does not preclude emotion; what it does is keep the proceedings firmly grounded at all times, so that even the spaciest moments evoke rain-slicked streets and dark alleys rather than something more fanciful.

Compared to the sparseness of previous efforts, For All The Beautiful People is thick with sounds: more keyboards, extra guitar and bass tracks and odd electronic noises are everywhere. You'll still be hearing new things on your fiftieth listen; this one was made for headphones and a big spliff. But it's not just a sonic gimmick-fest; the new songs are keepers. Cool, calm, ear-tickling ballads like "Oh My My" and "Something To Do" are offset by the more forthright snarl of "Make Up Your Mind." Of course, it wouldn't be a Swell album without at least one impressionistic soundscape-track; here it takes the form of a lengthy intermission of crickets, thunder and rain that nicely masks the car alarms on my street. Ordinarily, this diversion would be silly and self-indulgent, but they come charging back, refueled and more inspired than ever, with five more amazing tracks that blow the already-great previous half of the album out of the water. Particularly fine are the first two, "Blackmilk," a gusto-filled slow stomper with the funniest lyrics of the lot ("You think you're sad/I think that's crap/You're black as milk/and milk ain't black!"), and "Everything Is Good," a song so giddy with reassuring optimism you'll actually be convinced when Freel chimes, "Let's not worry now!" It'll make your day, if not your year.

- J Neo Marvin