There’s no denying our roots—there’s no way to get rid of the things, places and people that made you who you are, changed your life and created your perspective. For me, and I’m sure this is also true for a whole generation of life-weary yet optimistic young adults, pop punk music is just one of those things. Even as I grow older and my music tastes evolve with increasing unpredictability, there’s just something about loud, fast and heartfelt pop punk that, when it’s done right, always seems to put a huge smile on my face.
The Light Under Closed Doors, the fourth full-length record from Michigan natives The Swellers, is nothing spectacular or genre creating. It won’t change the face of music, and a vast majority of people will never hear it or even know of its existence.
Why is it, then, that The Light Under Closed Doors is one of the best records of 2013? The answer is simple: The Swellers had no intention of doing any of those things. With their first record for indie powerhouse No Sleep Records, The Swellers take everything that makes pop punk great and turns it up to 11—and goes no further.
The Light Under Closed Doors is an extremely concise record. Clocking in at just 30 minutes, the album takes no detours into strange territory—and there’s no need to. Opener “Should” shows off this mentality quite well, barely stretching past the two-minute mark, which keeps its delightfully familiar hook from overstaying its welcome.
“Should” is a great representative of why The Light Under Closed Doors is so great—there’s just something about it that reminds me of the songs and the records that made me like music in the first place. It’s raw; it’s catchy; it’s incredibly heart-on-sleeve and blunt (“I can hear my heart under the floor/beating uncontrollably for more”). And, most of all, it’s just relatable.
It doesn’t matter how creative or ambitious an artist can get with their sound, how much glockenspiel they can squeeze in between verses or how intricate and ambiguous their poetry can get. If the song doesn’t relate to you or hit you to the core and make you say “I get that,” then what is the point?
The Light Under Closed Doors recounts nights of painstaking heartbreak, early adulthood anxiety, personal isolation and existential self-awakening. The Swellers have no interest in sugar-coating it or hiding it behind whatever complex arrangement they can think of. No. They lay it out in late 90s and early 2000s-sounding punk riffs and huge choruses.
And it works for them better than it does for most of their peers. The Swellers, now 10 years into the game, know what works and what doesn’t. “Big Hearts” thrives on a back-and-forth callback between lead singer Nick Diener and a chorus of gang vocals, while “Favorite Tune” dives into heart-pumping guitar solo bliss.
The Swellers reach their ultimate peak with “High/Low,” a sludgy, Pinkerton-inspired number which ultimately explodes into a mid-tempo, soaring chorus of personal and world-weary dread: “I’m locked in my room and I’m not feeling human… I can’t even hear what you say, from going through the highs and lows another day/ maybe in 200 years time, things will finally feel right.”
Meanwhile, closer “Call It A Night” works to appeal to longtime fans of The Swellers. It wraps up not only The Light Under Closed Doors but an entire 10-year career of being wrongfully swept under the rug by record labels and incessant, ambitious touring cycles. It calls back to those songs of homesickness and days past: “I’ll find my way back home when I’m out of places to go/I’m done shoveling snow/But some of this will stay, when the feeling fades away/When it all comes to light, we can call it a night.”
In “Big Hearts,” Diener ferociously begs, “Give me a melody, give me a feeling/Give me something I can finally believe in.” With The Light Under Closed Doors, The Swellers give us just that. These are 10 sing-along anthems for the nostalgic, down-on-his-luck optimist living in a harsh world. With these songs in his ears, that world might just feel a little bit easier to get through.
Critic’s Rating: 4 out of 5
Jordan Walsh can be reached at jordan.walsh@theminaretonline.com