Briston Maroney - Real Good Swimmer
Described by fans and critics as a promising trailblazer within modern indie and alternative music, Briston Maroney has consistently been on a rollercoaster that appears to only go up over the last 5 years. What began as a kid from Tennessee on American Idol’s 13th season has transformed into a budding sensation with over 1.5 million monthly listeners. Just 3 months before the 27 year old is due to hit the road with the indie pop pioneers that make up the band Peach Pit, he’s released a song by the title of Real Good Swimmer.
Coming in at only 2:22, Real Good Swimmer is a dark and rockified number that poses as a new chapter for Maroney. Similar to the tracks from Maroney’s Carnival era from 2018, this fresher sound is uncanny to the viral Beck song, Loser, only it is contemporary and comes in like a bat out of hell with no warning.
In October of last year, I had the honor of attending Maroney’s show in Grand Rapids during his Ultrapure tour and he played this song. None of the crowd knew it at the time but once that mid-song breakdown composed of distorted guitars and rawness hit our ears, the realization of Maroney, his band, and the sheer power of his artistry plowed through us like a tsunami. The name of the song lost me but I kept the memory of how I felt during its performance for all these months and once Maroney announced its official release on Valentine’s Day, I just knew in my heart it had to be that fated song from October and I was right.
Aside from the hard hitting instrumentals and general atmosphere of Real Good Swimmer, the song’s lyricism and attitude is downright gritty, southern, and off the beaten path. It’s sung in a spoken word sort of style, twisted with a rebellious approach, and the song opens with the lines “I can see myself sittin' down by the river smokin' cigarettes and chewin' on a gizzard. Sittin' in the sun, man skinny as a lizard. My baby fell in, but she's a good swimmer”. Though not as poetic or obviously profound compared to past works such as Body, It’s Still Cool If You Don’t, Why, and June, it poses a fun lilt that has more hidden messages that listeners have to work a little harder to find. Some of these notions include but are not limited to “Patience is a virtue that we learn by force” from the first verse and “Lookin' out the window at the world goin' by. Flap your arms hard enough and you're surely gonna fly” from the bridge.
After this release of Real Good Swimmer, fans can watch its coinciding music video AND they can catch Briston Maroney on tour with Peach Pit this Spring in cities such as Dublin, London, Chicago, Boston, Toronto, and more. Maroney has also hinted on social media at even more new music, in his most recent Instagram post he is quoted saying “(this is) the first domino in a long chain of insanity to fall, stay tuned for the rest of the story, can’t wait to introduce ya to a friend of mine real soon…” so Real Good Swimmer appears to be just the tip of the iceberg.