Torches | Swing By the Rock

Release date: March 14th 2014

Three years from their debut album Torches comes their follow-up Supermodel. The band’s frontman Mark Foster has said in interviews that Torches was just a collection of songs while Supermodel is an album, a whole. He also said that he wrote this guitar-driven album like nobody was ever going to listen to it and to me that makes this album way more interesting than I ever imagined.

Foster describes the album cover as of a girl who’s vomiting what she had just eaten while paparazzis are capturing her moment of weakness. He said Supermodel is about us acting like supermodels through social media, putting on a face that we want people to see but isn’t necessarily the honest face of who we are.

Being mainly written in Africa it’s easy to spot the eastern sound and rhythm throughout the album. The first song Are You What You Want To Be? makes you feel like you’ve taken a sudden trip to some lost tropical island. The song is also a great beginning for an album and a clear sign that this album has moved to a more stadium-level.

The first single from the album Coming of Age is about the success after Torches but still (for me) doesn’t beat Torches single, Pumped Up Kicks. Best Friend is Mark Foster’s favorite song but also his most difficult one. It ended up being really up-beat song with dark lyrics about his lack of energy after writing the album.

The high point of the album is at The Truth! Literally, no song has ever made me want to cry from anger and happiness at the same time. It makes you kind of tired but also gives you hope “There is a truth / there is a light”

After the powerbomb comes the most beautifully written song on the album, Fire Escape. Like the name indicates, their inspiration came from an old fire escape at the house Foster grew up in. He thought of what the house and the fire escape had seen for all those years, the industrialisation, the greed in LA and as much as he want’s to save it he can’t. As crazy as it sounds this acoustic guitar song is really just beautifully written!