• Record Label: Vagrant
  • Release Date: May 20, 2008
Metascore
72

Generally favorable reviews - based on 12 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 12
  2. Negative: 0 out of 12
  1. It's almost impossible to dislike Swimming's pastel beauty, but it's nearly as difficult to work up much enthusiasm about it.
  2. Trading layers of mood and melody and meaning for layers of Pro Tooled artifice, French Kicks have razored off the bullshit, leaving a core of beguilingly honest tunes.
  3. Swimming is really too damp to catch a spark, but could quite easily find a home nicely in the background somewhere of a candle lit wine bar or other chilled venue.
  4. Under The Radar
    70
    French Kicks guarantee that Swimming is not a watered-down concoction, and in doing so, have not only reinvented themselves, but may have also saved their careers. [Summer 2008]
  5. French Kicks cannot rightly be pegged as a one-trick pony but the formulaic organisation of this record emphasises lushness at the sacrifice of any surprises.
  6. 70
    By recycling and loosening up "Two Thousand's" best elements--inventive instrumental passages, rich harmonies, across-the-board emoting--French Kicks get both poppier and deeper.
  7. Alternative Press
    80
    You could feel the Kicks reaching for this sort of grandeur in the more inspired moments of 2006's "Two thousands, " this time, they're bathing in it. [July 2008, p.158]
  8. Filter
    80
    Swimming's arrangements and harmonies speak to a contemporary sensibility--one well aware that, for all the beauty of living in the moment, the moment still passes by. [Spring 2008, p.94]
  9. So, no, this isn’t groundbreaking sound art, just really good dream-pop, as pleasant as this music can get without being--don’t deny the thought you indelibly harbored--cloying; that’s a space that we need bands to fill.
  10. To save themselves from the sneaking accusation that they were fizzling out, the quartet self-produced and -mixed "Swimming," and the result is an album notably more laid-back and truer to their wistful personalities than 2006's "Two Thousand."
  11. 70
    While the production throughout the album is very strong and cohesive (guitar, drums and some piano taking care of most errands), the vocals might prove otherwise.
  12. With catchy choruses (hear "Why, tell me why?/I don't know" once and it won't go away), assured self-production, and lyrics that lean on nobody's pen, it won't be long before people start comparing other bands to French Kicks, instead of the other way around.
User Score
6.8

Generally favorable reviews- based on 5 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 5
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 5
  3. Negative: 1 out of 5
  1. PG.
    Jun 27, 2008
    9
    I really just enjoy hearing these guys. So nice.
  2. Colin
    Jun 12, 2008
    7
    Sorry, I haven't actually heard this, but i needed to point out that this is definitely not their sophomore album. It's at least Sorry, I haven't actually heard this, but i needed to point out that this is definitely not their sophomore album. It's at least their third, maybe even fourth Full Review »