“My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky” is the title of the new Swans album. The iconic band has returned (without Jarboe, some will pout but it’s a good thing). Ok so we all know how bitter some come-backs can be, but from an artist who never made any compromise, a bad album was not an option. Michael Gira’s music is just inspired. The guy has it, that’s all there is to say. He’s just a good songwriter. Grand & epic but also fucking ferocious & cynical sometimes (“You Fucking People Make Me Sick” is sung by his 3 years-old daughter along with Devendra Banhart), “My Father” stomps and grooves in a religious, western decorum. Just like if The Stooges were wearing cow-boy hats, reading the new-testament while copping an absinthe buzz under the milky-way. The quiet fields of Michael Gira recent projects (Angels Of Light) have been left for some more ambitious, nightmarish textures that took things back where they were left 13 years ago. The opener “No Words/No Thoughts” is a hook-up that will keep you hypnotized for the next 45 minutes, up to the climax with the monumental “Eden Prison”. Overall, it’s a really solid record that totally worth getting into. This sweet poison is the sonic proof that some artists have developed their song-writings over the years without selling-out. Swans is really one of a kind and now that they’re back I realize I missed them. This said, I didn’t even fucking get they were playing in NY last week…
NB: the album is now available as a double CD including 40 minutes of additional music. Mr Gira says: “I took instrumental passages and single sounds from the “My Father…” album and tortured them and stretched them and added other sounds and orchestrations and strangled that mess until it was forced into a new form called “Look At Me Go”.
Killer.
Purchase “My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky” at Young Gods records.
For those of you who don’t know the band, check this out:
