PRESS
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"Everything Is Good Here/Please Come Home"
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BRAINWASHED.COM | BY MARK WEDDLEShow previewWhat's immediately striking about this, the third album by Michael Gira's Angels of Light, is the visual presentation. The six photos - an empty chair, a cluttered desk, a room full of plants, a bookcase loaded with CDs and books, a rosary draped over a thermostat, and, perhaps most tellingly, an empty bed - seem to paint a picture of a sufficient but lonely life. Coupled with the title, one can't help but construe that Gira is sending out a clarion call to former partner Jarboe. Does he want her back or has he found peace on his own? Further lyrical clues are open to interpretation as Gira's songs often blur the lines between autobiography and fantasy. An impressive orchestra of cohorts was once again assembled to add varying degrees of layers to his voice and acoustic guitar, everything from standard rock band instrumentation to mandolin, accordion, harmonium, flute, trombone, harmonica, banjo, fiddle and even a children's choir. The opener "Palisades" inquisitively details a suicide in which "reasons won't come, and no one will regret... that you're gone". Gira whoops and hollers most on the climactic "All Souls' Rising" and "Nations", 2001 tour favorites. Conversely,......
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Oh Me Oh My
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The Santa Barbara Independent | by Matt KettmannEerie.freaky.haunting.melodicEerie.freaky.haunting.melodic.. There's no end to sparsely used adjectives that describe this 21-song foray into the Texas-born, 21-year-old 's fuddled mind. At first it seems to be some weird, gimmicky singer/songwriter shtick. Then fear sets in as the lyrics become distinguishable and the ambient white noise lurks in the background. But then you can't help but listen more, even giggle, as Devendra's vocals delve into some far-off fantasyland that's actually almost familiar. Indescribably odd, but he's onto something, even if it is just hard drugs....
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Angels of Light | Everything is Good Here... | Review
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Magnet | J. Gabriel BoylanMichael Gira is always one step ahead of himselfHis sublime Swans is still too intense for most ears, yet it forecast everything from grunge to industrial rock during its 15 year existence. In the 90's, Gira retired to subtler sounds, penning love songs and loss songs for Angels Of Light. While AOL's three previous albums covered the ground between introspective folk and lazy psych (which, to quote a phrase, is like spanning from the living room to the dining room), Everything Is Good Here; Please Come Home expands the band's sound considerably. Gone are the drippy sentiments laid down, it almost seemed, solely to distance Gira from his aggressive roots. These are fractured tales, pop scrap heaps and diseased love songs that Gira recorded as simple acoustic numbers before compulsively layering and polishing them into something at least emotionally reminiscent of his work with Swans. What has always made Gira's songwriting interesting has been an ability to focus his wild energies, livid social conscience and heavy heart into a laser beam of brilliant sonic direction and arresting singularity. Angels Of Light doesn't sound like much other music available today. It's too hard and too soft at......
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Angels of Light | Preview
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Jordon Zivitz | Montreal GazetteThe Angels of Light perform at La Sala RossaMichael Gira says the new Angels of Light album is one of the crown jewels of his 20-year recording career. But he can't stand to listen to it. "It just sounds like static sound to me now," Gira said in an e-mail interview, pausing from intensive rehearsals for a tour in support of Everything Is Good Here/Please Come Home." I actually hate the recording process for that reason. It kills everything. Still, I'm addicted to it." Perhaps it's the feeling of studio labour destroying his music that leads Gira to constantly reinvent it. The New York-based singer launched the Angels of Light in 1999, burying his previous band Swans after 15 years of challenging, cathartic sound sculpture that was revered and reviled in equal measure. Gira has always been at the core of both outfits, joined by a changing parade of like-minded fringe-dwellers who feel no obligation to create a living, breathing version of the album on stage. Hence the strange touring lineup, which includes three guitarists and no drummer. "I just don't see any point in trying to replicate something that's already passed. Also, it would be......
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ANGELS OF LIGHT | Everything Is Good Here
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Jersey Beat | Greg Matherlymethodical and intense, even at its most subtleEverything Is Good Here/Please Come Home What's to be said about Michael Gira? It's difficult not to hear his influence over countless bands today that describe themselves as dark, industrial, or brooding. Even in the heavy metal scene, the Swans influence rears its head. Thing is, by the time a lot of these bands incorporate their prayers to Gira, it's second or third-hand influence. They know not the god they wish to be. This is the ubiquitous influence of Gira. For the third release of Angels of Light, Michael assembled a host of amazing musicians. He claims it's the best release yet under that moniker, and I am very much inclined to believe him. This record is methodical and intense, even at its most subtle. Gira merely opens his mouth and the carnivalesque is envoked-add to this a biting urgency, clearly expressed from the scream to the whisper, and an interplay of acoustic guitar, "treated" guitar, violin, mandolin, trombone, banjo, and a children's choir, and what you get is a small masterpiece from a veteran of pain, loss, and condensed anger. There's a tour coming up, kids. Do your......