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Angels Of Light Sing Other People | Review
Agouti Music | Eli Ellsworth
...the whole damn album soars with excellence
August 7/05 The Angels Of Light Sing Other People Just like Tom Waits, ex-SWANS frontman Michael Gira has not only matured with age but increasingly grown as an artist in the latter part of his career. This is Gira’s fourth album with The Angels of Light and a welcomed expansion to more-delicate country-tinged freak-folk indie music. There is an omnipresent lamenting associated with The Angels of Light, a kind of introspective heavy-spirited gloominess that encompasses with ethereal splendor. Genuine emotion and quiet repose are prominent, with instances of lively rejoice occasionally filtering through. There’s such a spellbinding organic sound on this record. Acoustic nylon string and slide steel guitars, fragile piano, violins and cellos, sparse percussion, spine-tingling tortured moans and groans, yelps, drawn-out harmony, and Gira’s breathy baritone are intelligently and bewitchingly combined, creating a wonderful extrasensory escape from a weary world. Indispensible selections include "Michael's White Hands," "Purple Creek," "My Sister Said," "Jackie's Spine" and "Simon Is Stronger Than Us." Honestly, the whole damn album soars with excellence. This is razor-sharp acoustic intensity that continually inspires a blossoming appreciation for freak-folk experimentation. I just wonder how they're going to top this one.