Swelter - Songs Of Distance (CoraZong) Dutch guitar pop - grown up and elegant. The Dutch do this sort of thing well; bands like Bettie Serveert and Daryll-Ann spring to mind, and Swelter are now added to the list. The songs here touch all sorts of downbeat subject matter; fear, isolation and misunderstanding. Truths that are probably best left unsaid, unless you’re a songwriter with a particularly sympathetic touch. Bart Drost is the songwriter, and is undoubtedly aware that many others have tapped into this rich melancholic vein. Fortunately, he and his bandmates are astute enough to realise the pitfalls, and have stamped their own identity all over these recordings. It’s an album suited to twilight listening, and the finer songs, “Wait and See”, the keyboard dominated “Still Not Won” and the soaring “Saddest Meal” will guarantee repeated plays ‘til bedtime. Rob F. Next