Michael Gira’s Angels of Light project, no longer exactly ‘new’, at first continued on with the hypnotic, dreary and almost infinitely pessimistic sounds of his solo album “Drainland” while borrowing all the folkiest bits from the Swans’ 1989 folk experiment “The Burning World”. This time around, he puts his whole heart into it, and gets a diverse, sprawling 17 track epic. This is easily some of Gira’s best music ever, dispelling any worries caused by the breakup of Swans.
On “New Mother”, Gira’s compositions, most easily classifiable as folk songs, are more complex and also oddly more conventional than ever before, often containing verse and chorus sections, though sometimes in unexpected alternations. Swans tracks often featured the same layered texture for the entirety of the song. This album shows that Gira has become ever more conscious of time, condensing the incredible power of the “Soundtracks for the Blind” album and its 12 minute build ups into shorter, 4 to 6 minute songs with many distinct parts. These songs still remain ’soundworlds’ in the Swans sense, although interestingly enough they are primarily acoustic, or recognizable instruments. The listener is typically bombarded by 10+ layers at once. Guitars and multitracked vocals dominate, backed up by vibraphone (as per “Soundtracks”), organ and a particularly good sounding melodica. In many cases it sounds like Gira recorded the song first with just guitar and voice, and then layered other tracks over the top. The result is that it is simultaneously intimate and very produced and polished, perfect for this style of music.
As often with Gira, the lyrics end up being a focus. This album is a bit more playful, knowing, self aware… but for the most part it is filled with Gira’s age old despair, all the more bitter, stagnant and desperate after all these years. His surrealist vocabularity is powerfully put to use. The album is filled with evocative metaphors describing alcoholism, destructive relationships, domestic violence and lack of faith in one’s own good nature, to name only the most decipherable subjects. There’s an odd sense, despite the sadness, that Gira is more comfortable in his own skin as a performer, more used to being perceived the way he has been in the past. It seems he feels more natural in his latest role as a folk singer than he ever did as a no wave extremist, although it took about 10 years of music along these lines to get to this point.
His singing here is surprisingly expressive and full, his vocal range larger than ever, though still limited. The best way to describe the change is that he’s become extroverted and also sensitive, and no longer feels the need to hide his emotions behind displays of anger and force. His tone changes drastically depending on the song, almost as if he plays a different ‘character’ with each new set of lyrics. As a result his lyrics ring with more power and sincerity than ever. His singing on albums like “White Light from the Mouth of Infinity” was sometimes so unchanging and monotone as to be comical.
“Praise Your Name”, a tribute to all the battered spouses of the world, is one hell of an opener, and just a very moving song. The rest of the first half of the album sounds similar - gentle, beautiful, orchestrated, melancholy, not so dark as to be actually unpleasant. The lush, mostly instrumental “Angels of Light” is like a river glistening in the sun. “The Garden Hides the Jewel” is a sublime ambient electronic experiment that brings back the transcendent beauty of the later Swans material, one of the lightest moments on the album. After the 8th track “Intermission”, it’s like night has fallen. Gira begins to lose his composure and visciously rasp, almost as if in physical pain. “Not Alone” is the sort of the song that could make a person fear for their safety in an intimate performance setting… It recalls a person who, in the course of their rant, lashes out at the confidant who has offered to help. These violent songs were obviously recorded in a state of mental breakdown. The climax “The Fear of Death” says more in its naked 3 minutes of desperation than dozens of albums of wordiness and inhibition. It’s uncomfortably raw music, and therefore an always needed breath of fresh air. It’s also one of the darkest albums I have ever heard.
5 stars.