this flag signals goodbye review

review taken from noreasterzine

Where most bands fail, Swearing at Motorists thrive, imbuing familiar-seeming straight rock with their own sound. They accomplish this monster task by avoiding clichés in their lyrics, never playing a good thing to death and fine phrasing all around; letting notes ring out at the right moment, dropping lyrics into the right spaces and playing with as much soul as Will Oldham can sum up on his most morose of morose days. "Borrowed Red Bike" is one of the finest examples of this ability, a lament about a night out, drunk, looking in vain for a girlfriend. The song just sounds so intensely personal. The difference between Swearing at Motorists' song writing and other bland rockers is simple, the attention to small subtle details that bring you into a song. Swearing at motorists catch you on the first track and don't let your attention flag, resulting in the kind of listener devotion that will have you beating up your roommates if they so much as walk in between you and the stereo during "The Real Thing" -- especially during that part when your head is bobbing slowly to the first bit which goes slowly "Coca Cola and pills/ won't help with that void you can't fill...."

-- MH

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