I first heard Manchester’s Swim School when I was learning about Lizzie Esau — she was opening for them on their headline tour in April, right around the release of their third EP Seeing It Now. I heard that EP loved it at the time — their last two releases have been staples in my playlists since — but for some reason I didn’t post anything about them. Let’s rectify that now. Here’s the band live, playing “Seeing It Now”:

It’s so difficult to figure out what bands are well-known anymore — my own feeds have been full of Swim School for the whole summer that I assume the world knows about them, then I look at follower numbers and Spotify monthly listeners and THESE GUYS ARE CRIMINALLY UNDERAPPRECIATED.

Not only is their recent EP a brilliant bit of indie pop, they’ve been doing it for years. Here’s “Bored” from 2023, same recording setup:

You can trace their growth through their releases over the years. Their first EP, aptly titled volume 1 from 2020, is gentle, mild indie-pop, and includes a fantastic remix of a song called “How It Should Be”. 2021’s making sense of it all introduces heavier guitars and more driving beats (“let me inside your head” and “see red”), picking up cues from Garbage and Curve, but keeping one foot squarely in the indie synth pop world.

Last year’s Duality seems to be where they found their groove — some combination of time, a lineup shuffle, and the pandemic layoff pushed them to explore more guitar-driven alt-rock, balanced with heartfelt indie ballads (hence the record’s name). That EP’s centerpiece is “delerious”, which, well just play it, it rips:

Aside: there’s a very charming short documentary about the making of this EP, and it’s fun to watch the band be kind of wide-eyed as they step into a proper recording environment. It also uses an audio bed that makes it sound a bit like a nature doc.

That brings us to the newest EP, Seeing It Now – this is the band owning their sound. Alice Johnson’s voice is distinct and versatile with an occasional uptick at the end of a line, at different times reminiscent of Shirley Manson or Dolores O’Riordan. They’re on the festival circuit for the next month, and they’ve got a new single out tomorrow with Tom A. Smith (who is new to me). Here’s hoping there’s another bunch of new music on the way.

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