| Secret Swingers | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 1996 | |||
| Genre | Indie rock | |||
| Label | TeenBeat/Caroline [1] | |||
| Producer | Nicolas Vernhes | |||
| Versus chronology | ||||
| ||||
Secret Swingers is an album by the American band Versus, released in 1996. [2] [3] The band supported the album by participating in the Caroline All-Stars Fall Tour. [4]
The band added a second guitar player, James Baluyut, prior to the Secret Swingers recordings sessions. [5] The album was produced by Nicolas Vernhes, and was recorded over a month and a half. [6] The album title and many of the songs allude to double lives and secretive relationships. [7]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [5] |
| Chicago Sun-Times | [8] |
| The Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [9] |
| MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide |  [10] |
The Nashville Banner called the album "derivative of Sonic Youth," but wrote that "Versus still manages to bring its fair share of ideas to the table." [11] The Village Voice deemed it "as 'original' as guitar-bass-drums-vocals indie-rock music gets," declaring that "with equal boy and girl intensity, and ecstatic, near-schizophrenic tempo/volume changes, Versus have forged that rare commodity: a 'sound'." [6] The Sunday Times praised Fontaine Toups, writing that she "supplies the kind of motorised bass parts New Order's Peter Hook wouldn't have been ashamed of." [12] The Day noted Versus' "odd guitar tunings, bittersweet vocal harmonies and paranoid lyrics." [13]
AllMusic called the album "a superbly textured set more consistent and eclectic than anything else the band has done to date." [5] Magnet wrote that "Secret Swingers may not have been revolutionary, but like a good inside joke between friends, it stuck around." [14] Reviewing the band's 2010 album, On the Ones and Threes, Pitchfork thought that Versus' two Caroline releases "sound as close as most any other records to a definitive indie rock sound." [15]
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Lose That Dress" | |
| 2. | "Yeah You" | |
| 3. | "Glitter of Love" | |
| 4. | "Ghost Story" | |
| 5. | "Use as Directed" | |
| 6. | "Double Suicide (Mercy Killing)" | |
| 7. | "Jealous" | |
| 8. | "Shower Song" | |
| 9. | "Angels Rush In" | |
| 10. | "One Million" | |
| 11. | "A Heart Is a Diamond" |
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