Patrick Porter “A Swan At Smiley’s” (Asaurus 2008)
Patrick Porter’s A Swan At Smiley’s is an audio diary of a long summer spent in a treacherous apartment. He tried to record the album on a dictaphone using a piano at a local hotel . . . but a security-oriented employee put the kibosh on that idea super quicklike. Undeterred, Porter quickly picked up some recording gear and made a sprightly album that’s full of bright psych-pop.
In the press release, Porter claims that this album was mostly born out of girl troubles, but to the average listener, you’ll mostly find a bunch of tracks that center on mood and melody first and foremost - in that exact order. It all comes in a handmade package that perfectly serves the DIY atmosphere that peeks its head throughout the album.
There are spoken bits, hissy segues that likely don’t make much sense to anyone besides Patrick himself . . . and as long as we’re being honest, the album runs on about 15 minutes too long. But maybe that’s the point. It’s possible that tracks that run on and on endlessly like “Doritos For Breakfast” might serve to illustrate how long and seemingly infinite that very summer felt to Mr. Porter.
A Swan At Smiley’s makes for an interesting enough audio diary, but if some of the fat were to be cut from the tracklist, you might be looking at a really phenomenal forty minutes worth of ideas. A bit more focus, and Patrick Porter could be the absolutely great. As for now . . . well, he’s just pretty good.