Swag: Catch-All

In some circles, "swag" is the free stuff the music industry gives out as promotional items, and the abundance of such trinkets (all carefully identified in the liner notes) on the cover of Swag's debut album strongly implies what the music itself will resemble. Given the pin from Yellow Submarine, the ticket stub to an Elvis Costello concert, the toy Vespa scooter favored by the Mods, and the watch with Spiro Agnew's face, it would come as a shock if Catch-All sounded like anything but retro-minded power-pop. Swag does play retro-minded power-pop, but it's retro-minded power-pop with a difference, in part due to the band's grab-bag constituency. Originally formed in the mid-'90s as an outlet for the pop instincts of Mavericks member Robert Reynolds and touring keyboardist Jerry Dale McFadden, Swag evolved into a rotating collective that, on this album, includes Reynolds, McFadden, Cheap Trick bassist Tom Petersson, Wilco drummer Ken Coomer, Doug Powell, and assorted guests. Here, they take obvious pleasure writing and recording music that would never find its way into their day jobs—hook-intensive, harmony-rich pop that makes no attempt to hide its debt to The Beatles, The Beach Boys, and, naturally, Cheap Trick (which even gets name-checked in one song). Any album containing more than one song with a woman's name as a title (in this case "Louise" and "Trixie") clearly announces its attempts to stay far away from anything revolutionary. Besides, Swag's members obviously fancy themselves traditionalists. But their band is traditional in the best way possible, fashioning new pleasures out of old styles and virtually assuring that no listener seeking catchy, passionately performed pop could come away disappointed.