Having emerged in 2008 with the thoroughly listenable but largely unremarkable Fighting Trees, the Swimmers seemed likely to be the sort of band to release a handful of pleasantly backward-looking tributes to 70s AM pop and then shuffle off into obscurity. People Are Soft seems to be a concerted effort to avoid just that fate, as the Philadelphia quartet sheds their pop classicism and embraces a whole new set of reference points, showing themselves equally adept at C86 twee (“Shelter”) as they are fizzy power pop (“Drug Party”) and radio-ready ear candy (“Nervous Wreck”). Shaking off the humble understatement of their previous recordings, People Are Soft is an unabashedly anthemic pop album, with nearly every track overloaded with backing harmonies, handclaps, and analog synth detours that utterly eradicate their previous reliance on staunchly organic textures. Like Wilco’s Summer Teeth, another album that announced a band’s shift into a new stylistic phase, these are songs powered by a taut rhythm section and topped with glossy synthesizers and sing-along hooks, with vocalist and guitarist Steve Yutzey-Burkey possessing a voice that is perfectly suited for the nuances of soaring choruses and heartbroken melodies. None of that would matter, of course, if the songs weren’t equal to the artifice, but the Swimmers’ makeover proves all they needed was another layer of paint.

— Matt Fink

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