Swordplay is the stagename of one Isaac Ramsey, originally from Richmond, Virginia, but now residing in the Bay Area. He first started putting out music in 2005, but he’s been on an extended hiatus for the last few years. Now, with new music on the horizon, he and Milled Pavement Records have gone back and re-released his underrated 2009 album, Malista, for its ten-year anniversary.

For the re-issue, C$ Burns went back and remastered everything, and the album was given new artwork done by Bill van Cutten, and two new bonus tracks are included with the limited edition cassette tape. This is all very nice, but the meat of this re-release is still the original material from 2009. So, how does it hold up? Pretty damn well. It’s a pretty minimal project, with the majority of the album being composed with guitar and vocals, sometimes fleshed out with percussion and keyboards. It never gets too busy, though, with that raw connection between the listener and Swordplay’s voice being the key to the whole project. If you’re unfamiliar with Swordplay, he’s making music that falls somewhere between indie folk and hip hop, so there are natural comparisons to me made with acts like Why? and Ceschi. I’d also throw a little Mountain Goats and Baptist Generals in there to further give you a feel for the indie folk side of his music, but the general idea is that his music fits into this in-between space where the music oscillates from leaning on the beat or the guitar to find its footing, and his voice accordingly wavers between rapping and singing, but often falling somewhere right in the middle. The whole thing is pretty interesting, but even more importantly, it’s really emotionally charged. For all of the musical experimentation on the album, it’s Swordplay’s raw and honest lyrical content about his hopes and fears, love and loss that makes this album so compelling to listen to and easy to connect to. It’s the type of album that you can easily get lost in and spend a lot of alone time with, singing along by yourself at the top of your lungs.

Not every album deserves a re-release, but Malista certainly does, because this is too good to be lost in the cracks. Swordplay is making some pretty unique music on this album, and this captures him opening up and being vulnerable in a way that sounds timeless.