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Friday, March 29
The Indiana Daily Student

Ballroom bluegrass

great lake swimmers

She wraps her arms around your neck while you place your hands on her hips, over her borrowed dress. Your dad’s suit jacket feels awkward as you sway back and forth on the gymnasium floor. Your palms begin to sweat as the Great Lake Swimmers play through their new album, “New Wild Everywhere.”

Such is the ambiance of opener “Think That You Might Be Wrong,” best described as ballroom bluegrass perfect for slow dancing at the high-school formal.

The titular track is more up-tempo and feels big, as if singer-songwriter Tony Dekker felt the need to encompass the entire great outdoors.

Dekker does his best Neil Young impression on “The Great Exhale” and to great effect, continuing the front-loading of the album.

Songs such as “Changes With the Wind” and “Ballad of a Fisherman’s Wife” hit the bluegrass pretty hard, while “Cornflower Blue” and closer “On the Water” slow the tempo a bit too much.

While “New Wild Everywhere” starts off as a confident compilation, it appears Great Lake Swimmers wander on the back half.

Even though this is their fifth studio album, they still have some exploring to do.

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