Michael
Gira is a man who revels in misery. After his uncompromisingly brutal work with
Swans in the 1980s (which remains some of the heaviest music ever recorded),
Gira turned to more subdued forms of anguish and depression in the following
decade. Proving that he didn’t necessarily have to be loud to get his point
across, Swans became rooted in dark, psychedelic folk rock for a few albums
before exploring the worlds of drone, post-rock and ambient music on their 1996
opus Soundtracks for the Blind. That
album would signal the end of Swans until their surprising reunion in 2010, and
it was during this period that Michael Gira began a new project known as The
Angels of Light.
The
Angels of Light took a far more song-based approach than Swans, focusing on
melody and harmony rather than cacophonous noise and jarring rhythms. Dabbling
in folk and country music, their 1999 debut album New Mother only hinted at what was to come a couple of years later.
Whereas New Mother featured a massive
17 songs, How I Loved You almost equals
its colossal 70-odd minute runtime in only 10 tracks. The reason for this lies
in the latter’s ability to allow the songs to grow and sprawl over Gira’s
barren soundscapes. Opener “Evangeline” almost effortlessly combines country
with post-rock, a weird combination to say the least, but it works perfectly.
The song builds slowly, subtly going from a simple acoustic guitar riff into an
emotional climax with the full band, and the line “I can feel it now” being
repeated as the music dies down. It’s a wonderful start to the album and this
continues into “Untitled Love Song,” replete with female vocals and beautiful
melodies.
“My
True Body,” however, bears more in common with Swans due to the dark subject
matter and occasionally shouted vocals. “New City in the Future” is another
sinister-sounding track that erupts towards the end of its 12 minutes with Gira
screaming “You were mine” like a madman. This forms the centrepiece of the
album and unfortunately sets in motion the few mediocre numbers that follow,
with “New York Girls” being the chief culprit. It’s not a bad song by any means,
but it doesn’t really go anywhere to justify its length. Thankfully the best is
saved for last with “Two Women,” perhaps the most brilliant song in the whole Angels
of Light discography. Like the opener, it’s a sprawling epic that builds
towards a magnificent climax. This time around, though, the real beauty is
contained within the final minute as the music begins to fade away and Gira
mutters the words “I can’t live without you... goodbye Jane.” That moment alone
makes the whole album worth getting through, even though there are some
typically oppressive and even frightening moments to withstand.
How I Loved You marked the end of an era for The
Angels of Light, as the next few releases slowly began to realise the sound that
would lead to the eventual reformation of Swans. Nevertheless, this album
remains the pinnacle of the band’s work and it would take Michael Gira another
11 years before his potential was this fully realised again.
Rating: 8/10
(Originally posted on sputnikmusic.com: http://www.sputnikmusic.com/review/55927/The-Angels-of-Light-How-I-Loved-You/)
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