{"id":818200,"date":"2026-07-23T06:37:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T06:37:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/818200\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T06:37:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T06:37:11","slug":"swapmeet-mount-zero-album-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/818200\/","title":{"rendered":"Swapmeet: Mount Zero Album Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Putting the trash out, feeling the rain through a window screen, assisting a parent with small tasks: The three vocalists of Swapmeet<\/a> use these mundane memories as the glue that holds together their pleasurable, climate-controlled indie rock. You don\u2019t have to squint to see the similarities to the Australian quartet\u2019s Winspear labelmates like Wishy<\/a> and Slow Pulp<\/a>, a little Alex G<\/a> worship, and a few detours into solemn slowcore. But their tales of fragile relationships, dead-end jobs, and mediocre friendships are fleshed out with patient details straight out of a Kelly Reichardt film. All of the minutiae helps them thrive with a familiar noise-pop style while underlining how enormous adulthood feels as a 24-year-old.<\/p>\n

Swapmeet offer a more muscular take on the catchy, shoegaze-inspired material that their peers tend to favor. The grunge guitars, hungover acoustics, and sandpaper drums are elevated by the easy vocal interplay between Venus O\u2019Brion, Jack Medlyn, and Maxwell Elphick. If an otherwise unexceptional song on Mount Zero is nearing its conclusion, be prepared for an epilogue where Medlyn or Elphick clicks on the distortion.<\/p>\n

No score yet, be the first to add.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also a palpable excitement over the possibilities afforded by playing around in the studio. It makes sense when you consider Medlyn recently stated<\/a> that he\u2019d like to live inside Ableton; \u201cWe\u2019re a trial and error band,\u201d he added, a technique that might have led them to spike the lethargic \u201cPersonal (Don\u2019t Take It)\u201d with arresting shards of clarinet. My favorite touch comes on \u201cSand,\u201d which bobs along on \u201900s radio rock atmosphere. A spry piano jumps in, prompting O\u2019Brion and Medlyn to harmonize. Both vocalists bring an exasperated glow to the song, as if they\u2019re making a long distance call that could make or break the relationship.<\/p>\n

So much emotional heft is packed into such tiny pockets. But further listens reveal something uneasy below the surface. Mentions of death grab your attention, and many lyrics seem to acknowledge that, even in a committed relationship, sometimes your partner doesn\u2019t have your best interest in mind. Nowhere is that clearer than on \u201cMy Heart Breaks II,\u201d where O\u2019Brion starts to unravel on Christmas before offering a bleak portrait of a breakup. \u201cGlass on the ground\/Blood in the sink,\u201d she sings, some minor accident or act of violence lurking around the corner.<\/p>\n

Most of all, I\u2019m haunted by how \u201cMy Heart Breaks II\u201d ends by cutting off O\u2019Brion mid-sentence. You might think of D\u2019Angelo\u2019s \u201cUntitled (How Does It Feel),\u201d which pulled a similar trick to express such an intense state of ecstasy that the music didn\u2019t have anywhere else to go. It\u2019s the opposite of \u201cMy Heart Breaks II,\u201d which evaporates into air right as O\u2019Brion sounds like she can\u2019t get much lower. This is Swapmeet\u2019s brand of emotional insight: You start by poring over the details and then you\u2019re left gasping for breath.<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Putting the trash out, feeling the rain through a window screen, assisting a parent with small tasks: The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":818201,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[12327,64,63,134,136,1672],"class_list":["post-818200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-albums","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-web"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=818200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818200\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/818201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=818200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=818200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=818200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}