Sugarwater is an apt title for Swings’ forthcoming full-length — all of the singles that we’ve heard from the DC-based band satiate a craving just enough to leave you wanting more. That craving might be any number of things, but most often it’s diluted melancholia, an inescapable sadness that blankets you in winter and somehow feels good. It’s a safe sense of disaffection that protects you from misgivings, and something about the way Swings create a mood rather than a melody reminds me of that same feeling. Their songs make space for you to sit and stew and contemplate the turbulence in your brain without needing to make sense of it, which can mainly be attributed to Jamie Finucane’s delivery. He slurs through a spectrum of emotion, never choosing one to depend too heavily on. “Sea” and “Tiles” benefitted from that abstraction, but “Dust” doesn’t have the same nebulous quality. To me, it’s a straight-up love song, or maybe a love-lost song. Listen below.

10/15 Saratoga Springs, NY @ Skidmore College w/ Mal Devisa & The Cradle
10/16 Brooklyn, NY @ Palisades (Exploding In Sound CMJ Showcase)
10/17 Burlington, VT w/ The Cradle
10/18 Montreal, QC @ Brasserie Beaubien w/ The Cradle^
10/19 Toronto, ON @ Smiling Buddha w/ Sidebitch
10/20 Detroit, MI @ Elijah’s w/ Sidebitch
10/21 Ann Arbor, MI w/ Sidebitch
10/22 Chicago, IL @ Flood House w/ Sidebitch
10/24 Athens, OH @ The Pink Mistress w/ Sidebitch, Sedna’s Not Alone & Slackluster
10/25 Akron, OH @ It’s A Kling Thing w/ Sidebitch
10/30 Chicago, IL @ Subterranean
10/31 Grinnell, IA @ Grinnell College
11/01 Milwaukee, WI
11/02 Minneapolis, MN @ Macalester College
11/03 Fargo, ND
11/04 Bozeman, MT
11/05 Missoula, MT @ Hockey House
11/06 Seattle, WA
11/07 Portland, OR @ 212 House
11/08 Olympia, WA
10/10 Eugene, OR
10/11 Sacramento, CA
10/12 San Francisco, CA w/ Plush
10/13 Claremont, CA
10/14 Los Angeles, CA
10/15 Phoenix, AZ @ The Trunk Space
10/17 Austin, TX @ Hotel Vegas w/ Palm
10/18 Lafayette, LA
10/19 New Orleans, LA @ Sisters of Christ
10/20 Birmingham, AL @ Desert Island Supply Co.
10/21 Atlanta, GA
10/22 Tallahassee, FL @ The Wolf’s Den
10/23 Sarasota, FL @ New College

Sugarwater is out 11/13 via Exploding In Sound.