Album Review - Swans / To Be Kind

I have both good news and bad news about life as we know it.  First the bad news...

 - It is inevitable that this world and life as we know it will end in Armageddon.

Now the good news...

 - The Armageddon will have a soundtrack

The Swans have created an unnerving masterpiece with their 13th release, To Be Kind.  At the same time it makes you uncomfortable and puts you at ease.  They have channeled the Velvet Underground with tribal infusions and it all seems to work.  Music can illicit a response.  Some music makes you tap your foot.  Good music makes you feel.  It can make you feel happy or make you feel pain.  It paints a sound scape.  This is exactly what Swans have done.  By the end I felt as though I was neatly tucked in for the end of the world. 

Since Swans reformed in 2010 their work has been growing.  This release is epic in nature with 10 tracks totaling over 2 hours of music.  The melodies are quirky and chaotic but there is beauty in the chaos.  The brute force of their earlier work is replaced with logic.  All of the elements seem to work against each other to perfectly fit together. The tracks take you on long emotional journeys and just as you think you are at the end of the ride there is another dip.  It is a piece that should be listened to as a whole for as difficult as that may be.  Be emotionally prepared. You may have to take it in pieces or wait for the right time but when you do it will hit you.  It has all the suspense of a good horror movie.  This is what music is supposed to do.




See you when the needle drops!

Fran

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