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Mar 02, 2015 Web Exclusive By Austin Trunick

I Wasn’t Born to Lose You is the Oxford, England rock unit’s first full-length in 17 years, and while Swervedriver’s return hasn’t gotten the same level of ballyhoo as contemporaries such as Slowdive or Ride, it should. Swervedriver pick up right where they left off, their sound relatively unchanged by the passing of nearly two decades.

“Autodidact” opens the record with bright, distorted arpeggios—it’s a soaring, upbeat single that would have fit right on Ejector Seat Reservation, centered on melody rather than amplifier crunch, which makes sense given the glammy, psychedelic direction they were following going in to the hiatus. Most of I Wasn’t Born trends toward that later, lighter side of their repertoire, rather than the harder-rocking tendencies that set Raise and Mezcal Head apart from the works of the more feathery shoegazers—but, there are a few notable exceptions. “Red Queen Arms Race” is a ballsy, blues-tinged track built around a low, weighty fuzz riff and extended wah solos; “I Wonder?” closes the record with several minutes of sonic bedlam. Come in, though, expecting a pop record—while it sounds like vintage Swervedriver, that’s not the same as saying it sounds like vintage (early) Swervedriver.

Boiling it down to oversimplified hierarchy, I Wasn’t Born isn’t quite on the same level as their first three (arguably classic) records, but it’s better than 99th Dream, and every bit the welcome addition to their discography that fans have been waiting for. (www.swervedriver.com)

Author rating: 7/10