PRESS
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To Be Kind # 3 in Wire magazine's 50 Albums of the Year
() - Angels of Light, M. Gira, Michael Gira, NME, SWANS, to be kind
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The Best Fit Fifty Essential Albums of 2014
() - M. Gira, Michael Gira, SWANS, to be kind
Swans - To Be Kindhttp://www.thelineofbestfit.com/features/articles/top-fifty-albums-2014Label: MuteReleased: MayOriginal Review by: Sam KrissTo Be Kind sounds alternately like a derailing freight train, a spreading wave of nuclear obliteration, the scream at the end of the world, and the chilling calm afterwards – but for all that, it might be the most accessible Swans album yet. A few moments might even qualify as singalong road trip anthems (albeit anthems best suited for a road trip directly off a cliff).It’s worth pointing out that Michael Gira turned sixty this year. However, Swans are as furious and as boundary-pushing as they’ve ever been, and despite the meticulous composition of the album, there’s still the constant nagging suspicion that Gira has gone utterly, chaotically insane....
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The Quietus - 2014 Albums of the Year
() - Quietus, to be kind
To Be Kind #3 "'I love you!' reads Michael Gira's address to his listeners, signing off the note announcing the release of Swans' thirteenth studio album. The open warmth of the sentiment might contrast with their agonisingly intense early music, but it captures the most striking aspect of this latest phase of his group's life cycle - its generosity. After a few seconds of near-silence - save filigree-fine electronic tones lingering in the air, eddying gracefully upward like sunlit dust motes caught in a draft - To Be Kind's centrepiece 'Bring The Sun/Toussaint L'Ouverture' explodes to life with a series of cosmic shockwaves, each struck chord's impact greater than the last, causing the atmosphere to tremble around you. Even though it's expected, the shock is exquisitely tactile, enough to suck the air out of your lungs. Percussion lances through your body cavity like the shudder from a skipped heartbeat, guitar textures ripple like fingers dragged hard across the skin, the music's weight presses firmly yet gently against your chest and back. Then, surging in almost immediately afterwards, a mass release of pleasure hormones triggers off sheer, clear-minded exhilaration." Rory Gibb...
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Entertainment.ie Album Review: Swans - 'To Be Kind'
() - Michael Gira, SWANS
Album Review: Swans - 'To Be Kind' Who could have seen this coming? Thirty two years since they first emerged as the enfants terribles of the New York music scene, Swans have just delivered the year's most uncompromising, thundering and blindingly brilliant album so far. Nothing even comes close to this; To Be Kind is two hours of music of gut-wrenching intensity, a series of never-ending peaks that take the rudiments of rock music and summons up something that is strikingly original. With To Be Kind, Michael Gira and his cohorts have delivered an album that surpasses their critically acclaimed 2012 release The Seer in all respects. The days when listening to a Swans record was something of a masochistic experience, a brutal form of aural punishment are long gone; To Be Kind is arguably their most accessible album while still challenging and demanding more from the listener than any other rock band would dare to. It's a record that requires patience - two hours of music spread over just ten tracks with every minute resonating with a clarity of purpose and a vibrancy beyond the capabilities of most contemporary rock acts. Michael Gira turned sixty this year; it is......
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Uncut: To Be Kind #18 in Albums of the Year
() - Michael Gira, SWANS
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