For any musician that has had a career as long and as important as Michael Gira, keeping up the momentum must be an almost overwhelming task. As if the early Angels of Light material wasn’t enough of a departure from Swans, successive albums and tours have seen Gira stripping his sound and his songs down to a rootsy, folk-fueled core that is both more immediate and more direct than most of his back catalogue. While the last Angels of Light full length left me feeling that I’d peeked a bit too closely in on the man behind the curtain, Gira’s portion of the latest split release with Akron/Family accomplishes more of that uneasy closeness and it’s his portion of the disc that I’m most apt to skip.
A Dylan cover in "I Pity The Poor Immigrant," while sincere, just doesn’t grab me. The Angels of Light version of Swans’ "Mother/Father" is drastically changed but serves really only as a curious look at a deconstruction of a familiar piece. Akron/Family once again serves as Gira’s backing band, and their contributions to his songs are wonderfully sparse and appropriate. I just wish there was an instrumental.
Luckily for me, Akron/Family’s half of the disc shines. "We All Will" is a terrific campfire sing along with some of the most pointed and insightful lyrics , while the chorus of voices in "Awake" give that song a beautiful depth. There’s an earthy exuberance in songs like "Moment" and "Future Myth" that’s simply contagious, and the band balances nicely the dark, detuned music with a willful joy in creating and performing their songs. Even if "Future Myth" outstays its welcome by the eight minute mark, I can’t help but smile at the fun these guys must be having writing and recording these songs.
This has been an excellent year for me for discovering simple, earnest records played by musicians who obviously make music for the same reasons that I listen to it. I’ve had the first half of this record on constant rotation for the last three weeks and it’s honestly one of the most fun records I’ve heard all year. Unfortunately, I just can’t bring myself to feel that way about the Angels of Light penned second half.
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