The Swimming Pool Q's - Royal Academy Press

Royal Academy of Reality

Royal Academy of Reality is an ambitious and successful summer blockbuster of a release...a sexy tour de force...glorious odes to the solar system. It's an anthem of the sun that would bust out in blows against the empire if anyone had the energy to launch a wooden ship, much less a rocket.

--VILLAGE VOICE

Possibly the most progressive American rock record of the new century. It sets an artistic standard few bands will be able to match.

--THE STATE

Overflowing with musical and intellectual ideas...flat-out astonishing.

--WIRE U.K.

Pocket symphonies of silvery guitar and warm-water singing: Abbey Road wrapped in kudzu.
--ROLLING STONE

A lavish record that's as cryptic as R.E.M. and as expansive as The Flaming Lips...warm and humane rather than aridly cerebral...their time may have come. 4 STARS.
--Q MAGAZINE U.K.

A gorgeous disc from a unique band that has been out of action too long.
--WASHINGTON POST

GRADE: A: Repeat listenings of Reality yield countless new pleasures.
--ATLANTA JOURNAL

A sprawling 70-minute voyage into deep space.
--CREATIVE LOAFING

The striking scale and superb craft of this album are impressive by any standard.

--ALL MUSIC GUIDE

This is one terrific album...a spectacular sound, one that overflows with sheer exuberance and invention...a strikingly original piece of work, and proof positive that in the grand tradition of Sgt. Pepper and Dark Side of the Moon, imagination and ambition are still vital ingredients when it comes to making music that really matters.
--SOUTH FLORIDA'S ENTERTAINMENT

NEWS & VIEWS

A rock and roll Gravity's Rainbow.
--AMPLIFIER

Exquisitely crafted songs [that] burst on the ear with the sudden force and electric sizzle of an August thunderstorm. Others open like furled flower buds, petal by petal, with imagery that's both winsome and passionate.
--TALLAHASSEE DEMOCRAT

Administration

Royal Academy Press > Metroland (1) > Metroland

The Swimming Pools Qs
Royal Academy of Reality
(Bar/None)

Conventional wisdom would not have foreseen a new CD by The Swimming Pool Qs in the year 2003. However, Jeff Calder has never had much use for conventional wisdom. Arriving in Atlanta from Florida, he put the band together in the late seventies. They were a powerfully alluring force live, combining Calder's fractured literary lyrics with churning rhythms that made them kin to both their rocking southern brethren and the hovering swamp gas of the Magic Band. Fronted by Calder and Anne Richmond Boston, their tandem vocals drew comparisons with Jefferson Airplane, but Calder's songs eschewed the blather, sci-fi and hollow call to arms of Kantner and Slick for more durable portraits of Dixie characters. They were like an Airplane fronted by Iggy Pop with a repertoire penned by Randy Newman.

Their indie debut The Deep End (reissued in expanded form a couple years ago) was followed by a signing to A&M for two albums, then another on Capitol and by the end of the eighties all became quiet on the new release front. The band never really stopped, playing periodically in Atlanta and surrounding environs. Royal Academy of Reality shows that they didn't stop growing either. A longtime coming, the disc boasts twenty songs to make up for the wait. No longer the young man who'd wail and bellow about unhinged, maniacal and criminal characters, Calder has allowed the natural flow of middle aged issues to roll into his writing. Instead of filling up space with powerful riffs and chest thumping volume, he's pondering the
infinity of space with finely layered arrangements. Guitarist Bob Elsey is still a key component of the band, but he's no longer dashing off crazed licks with the same abandon, rather, he's matching Calder step for step as his songwriting has expanded and quieted. Boston's only on hand for a few songs, and alas, none are showcases for her singing. But now the clock is ticking for the next album.

- David Greenberger