Swans – Birthing | soundsfromthedarkside

And so Michael goes. No more. Done. Away and gone. For now…

After The Beggar legions of Michael Gira admirers were left in doubt. On that record, he claimed he was done, ready to walk away. Gira however made this sort of claim several times in the past 40 years, only to reincarnate in a new form. And so came along Birthing, which is signalled as the next chapter in saying farewells. Now, at 71, the “Hayao Miyazaki of no wave” says that this is the final big sound album and further releases, if there are any, will be stripped down significantly. Anyway, after so many goodbyes it’s best to simply say hello to the two-hour sprawl of Birthing and plunge into its disorienting sonic maelstrom once more.

Birthing is a result of transformation. A transformation the band slowly went through during The Beggar Tour. On stage the songs of The Beggar grew to autonomous entities, sometimes taking 80-minutes to complete. Parts of the material, which are also heard on Live Rope (2024), were rearranged in the studio and now form the core of this latest release. If you attended one of these performances or heard Live Rope it is no surprise that Swans take their time on the final grand-scale album. The first three songs all follow the same pattern of a slow, unsettling build, gliding through moods and eventually shifting into sonic chaos. I Am a Tower is the most progressive piece here that offers layering repetition and grows out into a procession, with Gira baritone leading the way. His lyrics are intense and deal with letting go as his words evolve from the megalomaniac “I am the end of time” to “I am a tiny pink bubble, drifting in the wind.” Unfortunately The Healers and the 22 minute title track never reach these heights. Especially the composition of the latter is an example of a transformation gone wrong as it is very much caught between restraint and repetition and thus becomes an incoherent dull stretch.

More adventurous, however, are the album’s only two songs created entirely in the studio. Although the feel is not new, the sensual groove on Red Yellow greatly appeals. Here the obvious link to A Little God in My Hands (2014) is lovely but also feels unfinished due to the abrupt ending. The Merge, on the other hand, is perhaps the album’s most experimental song, as it starts off with a child’s voice (a clear nod to 1991’s White Light from the Mouth of Infinity) amidst electronic outbursts. It’s a mozaic-like piece, full of tricks, samples, and explorations, and belongs to one of the most suspenseful Swans tracks in recent years. The band also gives some room to their throat-gripping nature of old. Guardian Spirit follows an ethereal to dark and heavy pattern that is really lit up again by Gira’s A-class songwriting and claustrophobic mantras like: “Come into this song, like naked in light. Now peel off your skin, it’s my world you’re in.” It is this kind of performance that makes Swans the ultimate benchmark, or better said, the standard that is out of reach for us simple mortals. While you might expect Birthing to end as an explosive finale, the two-part (Rope) Away is a 20-minute trip to heaven. Rope glimmers and levitates for quite a while, enters a stage of turbulence, but then tones down into the compelling resolution of Away.

Birthing is not without its imperfections. The whole album can feel inconsistent at certain points and also feel like it’s revisiting old ground rather than breaking new. There is much familiarity heard to anyone who has spent time with their work from the 2010s. I would even go as far as saying that much of this 17th studio release could have been lifted from earlier albums without much alteration. Yet, we are still talking about Swans here, a band or concept that still towers above all. Birthing is therefore much more than an accumulation of the old: it’s living proof that endings can sound as colossal as beginnings. I for one felt the transition, and now it is your turn to do the same.

Label: Young God Records. 2025

Buy it here: https://younggodrecords.com/collections/frontpage

Track listing:

The Healers (21:41)
I Am a Tower (19:17)
Birthing (22:20)
Red Yellow (6:51)
Guardian Spirit (10:57)
The Merge (15:19)
(Rope) Away (19:10)

Line-up:

Michael Gira – vocals, acoustic guitar, producer
Phil Puleo – drums, hammered dulcimer, flute, melodica, percussion
Kristof Hahn – lap steel guitar, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, loops, backing vocals
Dana Schechter – lap steel guitar, bass guitar, loops
Christopher Pravdica – bass guitar, Taishōgoto, loops, sound effects, keyboards
Larry Mullins – Mellotron, keyboards, piano, synthesizer, drums, vibraphone
Norman Westberg – electric guitar, loops
Jennifer Gira – guest, backing vocals
Laura Carbone – guest, backing vocals
Lucy Kruger – guest, backing vocals
Andreas Dormann – guest, soprano saxophone
Little Mikey – guest, backing vocals
Timothy Wyskida – drums on The Merge