Albums by this artist

Everyday, Rock'N'Roll Is Saving My Life (2001)

Toshack Highway

Everyday, Rock'N'Roll Is Saving My Life

---

» MICHAEL CHAMY | STAFF WRITER

Toshack Highway Everyday, Rock'N'Roll Is Saving My Life Space Baby, 2001 RiYL: Swervedriver, My Morning Jacket, Transona Five

Stripped of all circulation, promotion, even recollection, Adam Franklin plows forward like a forgotten hero from ages past. Frontman and anchor of Swervedriver, perhaps the underappreciated rock band of the past decade (definitely where the record labels are concerned), Franklin rebounded from the demise of Zero Hour, Swerve's last U.S. label, to release Toshack Highway in 2000 on Catapult.

It was the left-field album of the year, and, to these ears, the album of the year, a revelatory half-instrumental collection wrapped in a shroud of analog synthesizers and infused with a My Bloody Valentine warmth. Franklin reappears again under the Toshack Highway moniker, this time with a four-song EP that's more like Swervedriver unplugged, or at least quiet, 4-track Swervedriver.

The EP's biggest success, in fact, is a reworked version of a Swervedriver song, albeit a B-side only devoted fans have heard. And that's a shame because "The Hitcher" is one of the great band's finest songs, an ode to aimless drifting ("I'm like a ship out on dry land") and possible redemption. Here it appears beatless and clean, chiming in all its melodic brilliance. The other three songs play like Swervedriver's mellow B-sides (not a bad thing). We've heard "Sieze The Day" before and liked it. The title track is less successful, but closer "O Sweet Daughter" is sweetly retro.

MICHAEL CHAMY |