Swim Out Past The Breakers is the title of the fifth full-length record from Wisconsin power-punk group Telethon, but it’s also a lyric from the song “Santa Monica†by Everclear. The line smacked singer Kevin Tully one perfect summer night when the song came on while driving around in his girlfriend’s car. "Swim out past the breakers, watch the world die",recites Tully. “It’s nihilistic but also really blissed out imagery, and I feel like that’s this record.†Swim Out Past The Breakers comprises 16 tracks that ride the cracks between the violent, overwhelming intensity and self-importance of young adulthood, and aging-out into a sort of comfortable submission to our conditions. It’s a monumental, maximalist work that spans punk rock, folk, bedroom pop, country, and power pop, all meandering familiar streets together, drunk on nostalgia. “I can see where each song takes place, and it’s all places that I’ve lived or I’ve spent time,†says Tully. “This record feels like you took all of the significant mental moments of my 20s, mixed ‘em all together, and then put‘em on shuffle. The whole record is about wanting to escape from stress, whether it’s the smart move or not, just kind of getting away, swimming out past the breakers and just watching it from afar. It’s more of a ‘getting older and realizing your problems are more insignificant than they used to seem’ record, rather than one where it’s about experiencing every bad feeling of your anxiety, which I’ve written about before.â€
