
Swans
My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky
As powerful and diverse as anything Michael Gira has ever done. It opens with the epic, soul-crushing 'No Words/No Thoughts,' but quickly veers to more pastoral terrain, and on to ever-ascending monotonal grooves. A filmic-folk idyll featuring Devendra Banhart on lead vocal abruptly shifts to cataclysm, and is followed by more airplane-taking-off ascensions, art songs and lethal sonic pummeling. A significant advance from where they left off and as challenging and emotionally demanding as ever..