Swans - The Glowing Man

“The Glowing Man” is Swans’ fourteenth full-length record and the fourth since the band’s reunion in 2010 after their 1997 breakup.  Since their inception in the early ‘80s, Swans have been hard to pin down in one genre. In their early years along with Sonic Youth, they were instrumental in shaping the noisier side of no wave.

Their most recent albums, namely “The Seer,” “To Be Kind,” and now “The Glowing Man,” when compared to the band’s early output are a bit less noisy and far more experimental. That’s really the best way to describe Swans’ music: experimental. They’re making music that sounds solely like Swans and no other group else has truly matched their sound.

The band’s first record after their breakup, “My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky” definitely wasn’t their best, but it set the groundwork for their reformation. Two years later, “The Seer” expanded on the band’s sound and took a more chaotic approach as well as bringing in nearly twenty guest musicians, including Karen O and former Swans member, Jarboe. Another two years later we saw the release of “To Be Kind,” my personal favorite Swans record. This album took the band’s evolution from “The Seer,” and once again expanded on it. TBK featured slow drones reminiscent of 1996’s “Soundtracks For The Blind.” It had hints of the absolutely noisy insanity of some of the tracks from “The Seer,” the atmosphere of “My Father Will Guide Me…” and the aggression of their first album, “Filth.” “To Be Kind” was Swans. It was the culmination of everything they had built up since the ‘80s. In my opinion it’s the best album Swans could have put out at the time.

But, here we are. Two years after the release of “To Be Kind,” we have “The Glowing Man.” There’s no question that this is a great record. But here’s the biggest issue: While every album Swans had put out previously had expanded upon and reshaped the sound of the record before it, “The Glowing Man” is just more of what was on “To Be Kind.” Clearly, this is not a bad thing, don’t get me wrong. But I feel that Swans could have done more. It’s clear that this is exactly what the band set out to do, given both album’s strikingly similar cover art.

It’s important to know that going into this record, listeners shouldn’t expect anything new or groundbreaking from the band. But what they will get is some goddamn great TBK-era Swans.

Like many other Swans albums, this record is quite the time investment, clocking in at just over 118 minutes. The shortest track is around four and a half minutes and the longest is  twenty nine minutes. Out of the eight songs on this record, five of them are over twelve minutes long.

Even with such long runtimes, none of these songs ever get boring. This is the first thing that really amazed me about this record - even with a runtime only a couple minutes shorter than “To Be Kind’s,” “The Glowing Man” manages to trim what little fat was left on Swans’ previous album. Although “To Be Kind” was near-perfect in my mind, there were a couple moments that felt a bit too drawn out or monotonous. Instances like that are nowhere to be heard on “The Glowing Man.”

The album’s opening tracks, “Cloud of Forgetting” and “Cloud of Unknowing” brilliantly complement each other. “Forgetting” starts the album off with slowly strummed acoustic guitars. Throughout the track, more and more instrumentation is layered on top before Gira’s instantly identifiable voice begins repeating “walking, counting, breathing, reaching.” This all continues to build up until wailing tremolo-picked guitars carry the track out.

“Unknowing,” picks up where “Forgetting” left its listeners. Here, we start off with a quick drone before transitioning into a guitar riff that is repeated over and over in a very Swans-esque manner. Once again, Gira’s booming voice is added into the mix. The monstrous instrumentation builds up until around the fifteen-minute mark where everything that has been established collapses in on itself. From the ashes of this climax, rise a set of bells very reminiscent of “Kristen Supine” off of “To Be Kind.”

This is the first time - out of two or three more throughout the record - where I feel like I’m listening to a rehash of that album that I’ve already mentioned so many times before. In a vacuum, “The Glowing Man” is absolutely fantastic. But in the context Swans’ recent output, I feel like it’s just more of the same. Maybe it’s a good thing that this is the last record from ”Swans' current incarnation," the last thing I want this band to do is stagnate.

The next track, “The World Looks Red/The World Looks Black,” repurposes lyrics that Michael Gira had written for a song that found its way onto Sonic Youth’s debut album. It’s nice to see that Gira still respects where his band came from and his relationship with fellow no wave bands.

“People Like Us” is the album’s shortest track and one of the more accessible cuts. Instrumentally, it’s fairly minimal by Swans’ standards, and it serves as a nice interlude between the more harrowing tracks on the record.

The first single released from “The Glowing Man” is “When Will I Return.” This song features lead vocals from Michael Gira’s wife, Jennifer. She sings from the point of view of the victim of some sort of physical assault, accompanied by more slow strumming from Mr. Gira. The slow crescendo in the background of this track beautifully leads to climax of both Giras singing together with the addition of a hypnotic organ. This is by far the standout track on this record and demonstrates that the band is capable of evolving and changing up “To Be Kind’s” sound into something truly unique.

The closing track on this album, “Finally, Peace,” is a fairly upbeat march through mind of Michael Gira. To me, the title is a nod to the the end of Swan’s “current incarnation.” Perhaps the next Swans album will mark a monumental sound change to something less chaotic, possibly something more akin to Gira’s side project, Angels of Light.

In the end, Swans put out another great album. Although lacking much to differentiate it  from their past releases and some of the aggression and loudness of TBK or “The Seer,” “The Glowing Man” is extremely listenable and may be the best way for the band’s current lineup to dissolve.

Swans - The Glowing Man

1. Cloud of Forgetting

2. Cloud of Unknowing

3. The World Looks Red / The World Looks Black

4. People Like Us

5. Frankie M.

6. When Will I Return

7. The Glowing Man

8. Finally, Peace

Beyoncé - Lemonade

    In December of 2013, Beyoncé released her self-titled album on iTunes without any promotion. The album was an instant classic featuring huge singles like “Drunk in Love,” “Partition” and “Flawless.”

    Well, She did it again.

    On April 16 of this year, Beyoncé announced “Lemonade,” an HBO special which aired the next week on April 23.

    The internet was set ablaze. People were posting everywhere, theorizing on what this whole “Lemonade” thing was about. What is a concert film? A cinematic short? A new album?

    Turns out it’s what Bey is calling a “visual album.” And it’s a masterpiece.

    The hour-long program was directed in part by Beyoncé. It was made up of spoken word poems intercut between every song from the new album. Each track is portrayed in its own visual style - from Beyoncé singing in a bedroom completely filled with water to her strutting down a city block with a baseball bat smashing in car windows.

Each shot is absolutely gorgeous and does an amazing job giving meaning to the songs and poems layered over them. It’s more than just a long music video.  

While the short film was fantastic, the question still stands: Does “Lemonade” hold up as a standalone Beyoncé record?

Yes. And it’s even better than 2013’s self-titled

The record starts out with “Pray You Catch Me” and right off the bat, it’s clear that “Lemonade” is going differ vastly to Beyoncé’s last full-length album. While that record was more or less a love letter to herself as well as her husband, rapper Jay Z, “Lemonade” seems as if it’s calling him out for cheating. Although there are theories that these songs are written from the point of view of Beyoncé’s mother, Tina Knowles.

Either point of view is valid and Beyoncé leaves it ambiguous enough to be up to the listener’s interpretation.

These themes of infidelity are all over this record and the album as a whole tells a fairly linear story of anger to acceptance and forgiveness.

The anger is most clearly heard on the track “Don't Hurt Yourself” featuring Jack White. As well as lending his voice to this song, White also produced it. Instrumentally, this song is a throwback to the days of The White Stripes with its prominent loud and distorted guitars. The organs on this track are very reminiscent to the Battles record, “Gloss Drop.”

Another standout track is “Daddy Lessons.” I can tell already that this one’s going to be divisive. People will either love it, or hate it. The song harkens back to Beyoncé’s roots in Houston, Texas. It’s a country tune accompanied by simply strummed chord progressions and a nice horn intro. This is one of the weakest tracks on the record.

“Sandcastles” is one of the most powerful tracks on this project. It’s simply Beyoncé’s vocals over her own piano playing, and both are beautiful. This is a thematic turning point of the record, it’s at this point that the speaker - whether it be Beyoncé or her mother - comes to terms with the fact that her husband was unfaithful.

The next track, “Forward” prominently features the vocals of English singer-songwriter, James Blake. This track is more or less a continuation of “Sandcastles” and is once again piano-driven.

“Freedom” - this track is fantastic. Here, Kendrick Lamar joins Bey to make a statement about the political disadvantages of African-American women in the US. Lamar gives a powerful verse very reminiscent to “To Pimp a Butterfly” - arguably the best album of 2015 and possibly one of the best hip-hop records of all time. At the end of this track we get a clip of Hattie White, Jay Z’s grandmother saying “I was served lemons, but I made lemonade,” giving the album its title.

The last track is “Formation,” the first single off of the album that was performed at this year’s Super Bowl halftime show. Sonically, this song is the most reminiscent of Beyoncé’s self-titled record. The dark production from Mike Will backs Bey’s delivery of lyrics meant to empower black women. Beyoncé made a great move releasing this single during Black History Month.

“Lemonade” is an incredible album. Once again, Beyoncé came out of nowhere and released one of her best. The accompanying film does a perfect job of giving meaning to the album as a whole.

Both the album and film are available for download from Tidal and the iTunes store.

Tracklist

1. Pray You Catch Me

2. Hold Up

3.Dont Hurt Yourself

4. Sorry

5. 6 Inch (Ft. The Weeknd)

6. Daddy Lessons

7. Love Drought

8. Sandcastles

9. Forward (Ft. James Blake)

10. Freedom (Ft. Kendrick Lamar)

11. All Night

12. Formation