Music: Emma Swift – 'The Resurrection Game'

A gorgeous collection of songs that speaks from and to the heart

Rare is the thing in music to listen with both ears completely open. Most of that time is reserved for exploration and appreciation. Emma Swift has that keen understanding, and by some measured lengths, it’s taken a few long strides to get here.

The Resurrection Game is Swift’s second full-length release after 2020’s Bob Dylan covers Blonde on the Tracks. Australian-born Swift has a deep affinity for the Americana and by association, the folk-rock genre. Her maturity and introspective quality is served well in these ten tracks, with her deep vocals juxtaposed with soaring harmonies and songs that reflect what Swift has characterized as “a bummer of a record. But I’m really happy with how it turned out.”

This is not an exaggeration in the mildest sense. After having emerged from a year long recovery from a nervous breakdown, Swift turned to producer Jordan Lehning, a cache of Nashville’s best musicians, and sailed off to Chale Abbey on the tip of the Isle of Wight. And as with most artists who can harness nostalgia and tragedy at the same time, therein lies the redemptive magic powers of healing.

Emma Swift – “Nothing and Forever”/℗© Emma Swift/YouTube

---

The cadence and delivery are unhurried and plain-spoken, carried along by Swift’s sure-footed vocals. The maturity and wise-beyond-years perspective are served especially well on the album’s title track – an anthemic reading of rain as a life-altering occurrence – augmented by a soaring string arrangement and cascading melody, which can sometimes belie the underlying current of tension and darkness as heard in “Beautiful Ruins” simple reading of a line: “I come from a place/The place of many crows/And I’ve told them all my stories/And I’ve let them pick my bones.”

Emma Swift – “Beautiful Ruins”/℗© Emma Swift/YouTube

---

It would be hard to describe what Swift is singing on The Resurrection Game is joyful, considering the circumstances surrounding its origin. On “Catholic Girls Are Easy” she invokes memories of introspection in an ethereal combination of hurt, questioning of faith, and love for something or someone just out of reach.

“How To Be Small” may initially seem like a retreat, yet as Swift leans into the song, she starts to breathe life into a place that rightly deserves contextual space over the expanse of what feels like eons. The coda “teach me how” is emotional, hanging in the throat like few ballads are capable of doing in this day and age in far younger singers who have yet to live a life.

The album’s closer “Signing Off With Love” is a slow-burning country twanger that moves beautifully from a self-deprecating lament (“This bathroom mirror hates me/Even more than you do now”) to an orchestral conclusion (“Is this how the end of the world/Is supposed to feel?”) with hints of a George Harrison-style melodic arrangement floating around for good measure.

And perhaps that is what is best accomplished by Swift in these songs. If you’re familiar with her live streams from Tubby’s House (with Robyn Hitchcock), you can see the empathetic personality and quick wit right at the fore, coupled with her seamless harmonic accompaniment. This collection is a treasure trove best expressed with the miles that Swift brings to start the engine of human emotion and expression.

---

The Resurrection Game releases September 12 on Tiny Ghost Records. Swift will have a free listening party streaming on Bandcamp on September 13, and you can RSVP here.