SWIMM Explore Past Lives on New Single "Last Life"

Los Angeles four-piece SWIMM has released the final song to be shared from their forthcoming sophomore album Best Comedown Ever with “Last Life.” The track is the latest single they’ve revealed from the project following previous offerings like “Be Easy” and “Used to Saying Yes.” Now the indie dance-pop outfit is back seeking the threads of love woven throughout our past and future lives.

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“Last Life” finds SWIMM exploring and testing the bonds that tie us to our perceived soul mates — musing through its subdued but ebullient melodics what it means to live and die with such an attachment. Against the track’s dreamily buoyant tones of skittering electronica, they wrestle with the prospect of not just living multiple lives searching for their love but of also facing their very last as well.

“‘Last Life’ started with a conversation about reincarnation. I overheard Adam (our drummer) talking about the idea that when people are thought of as old souls it is because they’ve lived many lives. And it’s possible that they are close to their last. I started to wonder what it would feel like if he thought his wife was on her last life while he had many more to learn from — if you think you’ve found your soulmate but realize you’d be coming back to the next iteration without them.”

“If this is your last life / permanence aside,” they croon. “Fortunate to find you in your last life / but who do I come back to?” The song’s tender but yearning lyricism captures the bittersweetness of realizing your partner, having attained that spiritual clarity, won’t be coming back when you do. Leaving an immense void that is earnestly and anxiously embodied by the song’s spacious atmospherics.

“Last Life” also arrives with a live music video that features a stripped-down version performed by frontman Chris Hess as part of the band’s Topanga Sessions. Stepping away from the lush electronica that often fills the background of their captivating vocals and lyricism, this iteration of the track places a greater focus on the wistful pain imbued by its words. One guided by just the radiant warble of a guitar and Hess’ rapt cries.