The Hex
Richard Swift believed in and sought real beauty. And so, even at its most caustic and sardonic, his masterpiece swan song The Hex is beautiful. Conceived in pieces over the last several years and completed just the month before his passing, The Hex is the grand statement Swift acolytes have been a-wishin-and-a-hopin' for all these years. After a career of sticking some of his finest songs on EPs and 45s, here are all his powers coalescing into a single, long-player statement. At its core, The Hex is an aching call out into the void for Swift’s mother (“Wendy”) and his sister (“Sister Song”) whom he lost in back-to-back years. You hear a man at his lowest and spiritually on his heels. The pain fueling Swift’s cries of “She’s never comin’ back” on the absolutely gutting standout “Nancy” is some sort of dark catharsis for anyone who’s ever lost a loved one to the cold abstraction of Death. Over a slow, Wall of Sound kick and a warbling synth, Swift’s cries climb higher-n-higher-n-higher into what may be his most devastating vocal performance on record. A cry of pain so real and so raw Swift had to treat the performance with just a little studio effect, without which the recorded grieving might be too much to bear. The Hex is presented here as “The Hex For Family and Friends.” An obsessive fan of Wall of Sound doo-wop, early Funkadelic, Bo Diddley, Beefheart and Link Wray, Swift gives them all a moment with the flashlight around The Hex campfire, one moment to make a strange shadow-cast face for us, his family and friends.
On the final and best album from the acclaimed producer and overlooked singer/songwriter, a new intensity and urgency line even the most upbeat songs.
A deeply engaging, consistently great release from a uniquely interesting artist
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Late studio musician, who worked with Shins and Black Keys, recorded this album weeks before his alcoholism-related death this summer
Depending on what you think should count, The Hex is the sixth solo album by singer/songwriter Richard Swift.
Richard Swift's final album before his untimely passing, The Hex offers a fitting moment of closure for a supremely talented songwriter.
The western frontier was an unforgiving place. Each town you rode into seemed to come with its own set of rules you had to navigate and adjust to immediately on arrival.
'The Hex', the eighth and final album by Richard Swift, was seen through to its genuine conclusion before his death in July 2018.