Sway is the second studio album by American
alternative rock
Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...
band
Whirr, released on September 23, 2014 by
Graveface Records.
The album marked the departure of previous lead singer Alexandra Morte, as well as the first release with Devin Nunes who replaced Sergio Miranda on drums.
It was produced by
Jack Shirley.
Release and reception
On July 11, 2014, the band released the song "Mumble" on
SoundCloud
SoundCloud is an online audio distribution platform and music sharing website that enables its users to upload, promote, and share audio. Founded in 2007 by Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss, SoundCloud is one of the largest music streaming s ...
as a preview of the new album.
At
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, Sway received an average score of 74, based on six reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews".
Tim Sendra of
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the dat ...
noted that ''Sways sound had taken a large influence from Nick Bassett's presence, "inch
ngthem closer to the harder side of the
shoegaze
Shoegaze (originally called shoegazing and sometimes conflated with "dream pop") is a subgenre of indie and alternative rock characterized by its ethereal mixture of obscured vocals, guitar distortion and effects, feedback, and overwhelming volu ...
revival (right next to Bassett's other band, Nothing, in fact)". He gave the album 4 out of 5 stars and finalized his review by saying that "''Sway'' is an album that would measure up to almost any album made by the first wave of shoegazers".
Punknews.org gave the album 3.5 out of 5 stars; while generally praising the album, the reviewer wished that Whirr would "experiment even more and toy with new music to give a bit more insight as to where the road leads", and also noted that "some tracks are a tad too long and sometimes, it drags".
Track listing
Personnel
;Whirr
*Nick Bassett –
guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected string ...
*Joseph Bautista –
guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected string ...
*Devin Nunes –
drums
A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair of matching drumsticks ...
,
percussion
A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...
*Loren Riviera –
lead vocals
The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of th ...
,
guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected string ...
*Eddie Salgado –
bass guitar
The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and s ...
;Other personnel
*
Jack Shirley –
production
References
{{Authority control
Whirr (band) albums
2014 albums
Shoegazing albums by American artists
Albums produced by Jack Shirley