Secretly Canadian has announced 4 Hits & a Miss – The Essential Richard Swift, a career-spanning compilation of Richard Swift songs that will be released on November 1, just over six years after the influential producer and singer-songwriter’s death. Over 14 tracks, the LP gathers classics, experimental numbers, and the previously unreleased song “Common Law” to tell the story of the visionary behind the Cottage Grove, Oregon, studio National Freedom. Check out the lyric video for his song “Would You?” below.
Swift died on July 3, 2018, after struggling with alcohol addiction that led to complications from hepatitis, and liver and kidney distress. Dozens of bands paid their respects to the late artist after news of his death spread, and Swift was lovingly honored with a tribute concert, a subscription-based singles series, heartfelt stories of remembrance on Talkhouse, a Death Cab for Cutie cover and 7″ vinyl, and more.
Swift’s final album as a solo artist, The Hex, came out just over two months after his death, in September 2018. Back in 2021, two of his previously unreleased comedy tracks, “KFC” and the B-side “A Man’s Man,” came out on a posthumous 7″ single from Secretly Canadian, too.
Read “Why Richard Swift Was an Indie Rock Treasure” on the Pitch.
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4 Hits & a Miss – The Essential Richard Swift:
01 The Original Thought
02 Dirty Jim
03 Would You?
04 The Atlantic Ocean
05 Buildings in America
06 Broken Finger Blues
07 Common Law
08 Lady Luck
09 A Song for Milton Feher
10 The Songs of National Freedom
11 The Novelist
12 Ballad of You Know Who
13 Whitman
14 Walking Without Effort Theme