It has always puzzled me that Swervedriver never made it big like most of their label mates on Creation Records. Hailing from Oxford, England, the four-piece stormed into the alternative music scene right as the shoegazing craze was beginning to wind down and the grunge rock scene was beginning to explode. Their debut Raise consisted of no-nonsense rock n’ roll comparable to that of Dinosaur Jr. showered with distortion, droning riffs, and heavy utilization of effect pedals that would make Kevin Shields proud. Shoegazing had never been so rockin’ until Swervedriver changed the dynamic, but their unique take on the genre was never fully recognized. Many financial and promotional issues occurred with Creation and various other labels they attempted to work with, and the band eventually called it quits in 1998.
I Wasn’t Born to Lose You perfectly illustrates the band at their most confident after their seventeen-year hibernation. Melody still serves as an extremely prominent aspect of Swervedriver’s writing instead of being buried beneath walls of sound like most shoegaze bands, and the overall genre balance remains as uniquely executed as ever before. The swirling waves of drone and distortion serve as the backdrop for the clean guitar riffs and catchy vocal melodies.