Teddy Swims: I’ve Tried Everything But Therapy (Part 2) review – retro soul with a retro lyrical attitude

While Brat summer grabbed the headlines as 2024’s defining musical movement, a straighter, more masculine, less lurid green development was rumbling in the background. Defined by American men with big voices, big emotions and big streaming numbers, it gave the world Benson Boone’s Beautiful Things (1.7bn streams on Spotify alone), Noah Kahan’s Stick Season (1.3bn) and Teddy Swims’ Lose Control (1.4bn). While the messy Brat defined a summer, the soft-alpha era is seemingly here for the long term.

The most interesting of the trio is Swims, a heavily tattooed former frontman of a post-hardcore band who now sings retro soul as if auditioning for Mark Ronson’s band circa 2007. This sequel to 2023’s Part 1 (home to US chart-topper Lose Control) continues to churn out immaculately crafted Motown and Stax pastiches, with Funeral and the mellower Your Kind of Crazy built on warm piano trills, loping drums and stacked backing vocals. Alongside stomping opener Not Your Man, they highlight Swims’ occasional lyrical shortcomings: in his world, women are unknowable, often wicked tricksters who are just too damn easy to love.

Much better are the brief forays into an airier, soft-rock sound, specifically on single Bad Dreams and the lilting It Ain’t Easy, which recalls Fleetwood Mac’s Dreams. But this isn’t an album designed to creep up on you: songs like the Lewis Capaldi-worthy ballad Northern Lights and the bludgeoning Hammer to the Heart have been manufactured for streaming and radio ubiquity. For the moment, Swims seems happy to ride the crest of this wave; whether he can pivot when people move on is unclear.