The Skints – Swimming Lessons-Release May 10th
Album Review
Andrew Mackenzie
It’s often hard to find such a band that you can either chill out too or have a good jam too! Well, the Skints have done it again, with their latest album “Swimming lessons” under the Easy Star Record label.
The Skints are from London, UK, and are a 4-piece reggae, ska band with sprinkles of dub and punk, who formed through their local high school in May 2007. They have gone from being a small band being played on BBC Radio 1’s Punk Show with Mike Davis to play numerous festivals and touring most of the globe.
This is The Skints 4th Studio Album, the band had been touring non-stop since their last album FM which came out in 2015 and I feel that this album has great vibes and has interesting surprises in each of the tracks. I was very lucky to go see them on their Swimming Lessons tour in 2019 and got to photograph them too.
This album is a great collection of sounds that I wasn’t really expecting to hear a band who are known to be on the punk side of reggae their album is really well produced and an album which is of as I said before easy listening with its very reggae roots sounds but also right in the background sound effect of an 8bit video game. Which helps all the songs blend into one another so nicely. The band released several singles from the album but the main one being “learning to swim” this is the first track of the album and has a great variety of sounds. Going from a reggae sound progressing into a harder punk style which is heavy on the drums and ends the single sharply. The Skints have also on occasion dipped their musical toes into the world of politics and current affairs and their track “The Island” is about the U.K and its political state this is a great upbeat punk style track. Another track I loved was “Restless” which is their second track on the album, this has a guest appearance from Protoje giving the track that reggae feels to it.
This album is a great mixture of chilled reggae style that if you are a fan of “The Skints” know of too their more punk, stripped back acoustic tracks and the last track on the album has a reggae Beatles sound to it. It really is a great listen and I hope you readi
You must be logged in to post a comment.