AMG Review of People Are Soft

Richie Unterberger
All Music Guide

The Swimmers touch a bunch of bases on the slightly alternative pop/rock map on their second album, People Are Soft. "Shelter" almost sounds like a more benign and poppy Joy Division, but it's not too typical of their sound, though some of the other tracks tend toward the slightly somber and synth-oriented. But their sound also takes in fuzzy grunge-cum-power pop ("Drug Party"), wistful dreamy ruminating ("What This World Is Coming To"), and some occasional rises to more memorable enigmatic moodiness, like "Dresses Don't Fit." Overall it's less indebted to '60s and '70s rock than their debut, Fighting Trees, though it's not necessarily an improvement.