"Swallowed" is a song by British rock band Bush,released in 1996 as the lead single from the band's 1996 album,Razorblade Suitcase (their highest-charting album in the USA,reaching #1 on the Billboard 200 chart).[4] It also appeared on both Bush greatest hits albums,with live versions appearing on Zen X Four (2005) and Live in Tampa (2020),with remixed editions featured on Deconstructed (1997) and Loads of Remixes (2024). The release of "Swallowed" followed the fifth and final single off of the band's 1994 debut album Sixteen Stone,"Machinehead",by only six months.
British magazine Music Week rated the song four out of five,adding that "the successful British exports look set for their first big UK hit with this melodic cut."[5] David Sinclair from The Times described it as "an undeniably catchy tune,once you get past the meaningless lyric and self-conscious Nirvana-isms."[6]
Commercial performance
"Swallowed" was released as the lead single from the follow-up to their massively successful debut album,Sixteen Stone,which was released two years prior. Upon release,the song topped the BillboardModern Rock Tracks chart for seven consecutive weeks,and peaked at #27 on the mainstream BillboardHot 100 Airplay chart. This is the longest Bush ever stayed at #1,on any chart. It was also Bush's biggest hit in their native Britain,where it peaked at #7 on the UK Singles Chart. It was nominated for Best Hard Rock Performance at the 1998 Grammy Awards,but lost to the Smashing Pumpkins' "The End Is the Beginning Is the End". This was the band's third crossover hit to Top 40 radio after "Comedown" and "Glycerine".
Gavin Rossdale opined in 1999 that,despite a musical dissimilarity,the song was "[his] version" of the Beatles' song "Help!".[8]
Music video
The accompanying music video for "Swallowed",directed by Jamie Morgan,was filmed in October 1996 and released later that month,is set in a retro apartment with myriad alternative youths.[9] A neon crucifix (which would later become the album cover for Deconstructed) is frequently interspersed amongst the antics of houseguests. The video was shot at Twickenham Studios England and in Florida.[10]
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