Angels Of Light — We Are Him
At times it comes across as a more musically assured and polished version children of god with the mixture of styles and there’s more than a few songs that he takes on his stony eyed preacher persona, which really shined on Children of God. I think the most important development here is he’s concentrating on writing quality and memorable tunes first, then secondly building wordy lyrics around the tunes- in the past you felt he came up with lyrics first and then tried to build songs up around them which sometimes really didn’t work. There’s also a fine use of instrumental texture and colour, but it’s always done for the better of the song and the atmosphere instead of just been stuck in and hope it works which again has happened in the past. The songs all clock in mainly around the three to five minute mark- mean the songs are kept tense and immediate rarely dipping into musically water treading.
A few of my favourite moments come in the form of the excellent opener Black River song, which enters with a piano roll before kicking in churning and pumping song structure- which is built around guitar twisted hypnotics a stomping vibe,droning bass work, female back vocals, and some neat brass pluses just before the end.
The churning doomy country/rock of not hear/not now that dips in & out of mad stuck fair ground refrain, and like many places on the album you really feel every one of Gira’s words- deep down in your very begin- his voice has aged wonderful like fine Bourbon, there also some of his most tuneful singing on display here and there through out the album too. Another great momment is the title tracks 70’s glam stomp, with hand claps and female backing vocals that I can well see going down well as a single, as it really sticks in your mind showing Gira at his most memorable and hypnotic.
It’s also nice to see some of the best artwork to grace his work in along time in the form of the excellent sinister/ cute painting by Deryk Thomas, who painted the covers for both The Swans Love of Life and White Light from the Mouth of Infinity. Which really tops off an excellent album with great visuals- so in finishing one of the albums of this year and a high point in Gira's long career- there is indeed life in the old dog yet.