I’ve been focusing on the negative aspects of Swole Ear a lot lately. Sure, this blog has its disadvantages. It’s a ton of work for me, and I can’t truly judge any of these albums fairly. But this blog has had its advantages as well. In this sea of recent negativity, I’ve forgotten the reason that I started this project. I wanted to discover new music, to listen to genres that I didn’t know existed, and artists that I would never come across otherwise. Let’s take Linda Perhacs, for example. This woman made one album in the ’70s, and then pretty much fell off of the face of the earth. Her single release, Parallelograms, was rediscovered by what I’m assuming were vinyl-loving hipsters a few years back, and Perhacs suddenly received a bit of popularity that evaded her 35 years before.
Now, for the album. You can really tell that this thing came out in the ’70s. We’ve uncovered yet another record that doesn’t work with the Swole Ear format (yeah, that’s four in a row, if you’re keeping track). Perhacs’ brand of spacy psych-folk is great for spacing out, but not so great for listening to intently. I did it though. I’m such a freaking trooper.
I honestly had no idea what to expect going into this. Parallelograms was described as “psych-folk” to me, but I really didn’t know what that meant. It turns out that it’s a pretty accurate way to describe this music. Perhacs relies mostly on her vocals and an acoustic guitar—the folk aspect — while the trippy song arrangements and far-out lyrics give it that psych flavor. It’s an interesting record, and there’s no way that I would have given it a chance if it weren’t for Swole Ear. Oh, and last.fm friend boyswhoblush, this is just one of those pieces of music that can’t be judged by the first listen.
Swole Ear 
Sorry — this doesn’t work. I get the idea, but others have done it better. So much better.