There is something mystically cryptic about Michael Gira's current band name The Angels of Light. Driven by constant sorrow and overwhelming heartbreak, The Angels of Light may be indie rocks most paradoxical outfit in today's music. Their third album, coincidentally named Everything is Good Here/Please Come Home sheds a concurrent redemption for the wretchedness and ever-present melancholy of ex-Swans Michael Gira. Accompanied with melodic yet numinous instrumentation and his powerful drone or sweet whispers, Everything is Good Here/Please Come Home exemplifies a road less travels by our regretful traveller.
What is evident and striking is how subtle are Michael Gira's cries for forgiveness and redemption. The album portrays the familiar themes of previous work and familiarizes the listen to Michael Gira's frightening inner-emotion. Also, Gira's delivery is more abrupt, almost violent in retrospect of his previous work with Swans. The musical approach remains a constant illogicality, bouncing from uplifting ballads to damp and sombre acoustic folk. Attached with the presence of Gira's torture, the album is an inconsistent balance of an extremely bi-polar emotional intake. Such ballads as "Sunset Park" exemplify the inner struggle of the listener's arousing sentiment. Throughout, the song remains upbeat, progressing boldly and feverishly from beginning to end. But what remains to be analyzed is Gira's lyrical surprise, chanting over and over again "She Brings Some, She'll Bring None" during the entire five-plus minutes of the song. Only Gira knows the true interpretation of this masterpiece, but what remains unmistakable is the Gira has opened his heart to his past complications and has slightly accepted his 'faith' as a disturbed soul. And that is what makes this album a true masterpiece, invoking a plethora of emotion, good and evil, bright and sombre, happy and depressed, and everything fittingly in between; where the past records were linear in distress and unhappiness. However this album makes you feel a broader range of emotion as Michael Gira completely envelops you within the realm of your mind. And that is the true resonance of Everything is Good Here/Please Come Home.
Where in the past, I would passionately listen to Michael Gira for my personal gratification that my was under control in the unforgiving world, I found myself accepting the fact that Angels of Light may be doing the same on their new album. Perhaps 'everything is good' with Michael Gira, but that can be left to interpretation. What is obvious is that Everything is Good Here/Please Come Home is a frightening roller-coaster ride that will leave you wanting more and more.
1. Palisades
2. All Souls' Rising
3. Kosinski
4. Nations
5. The Family God
6. Because She Was
7. Rose of Los Angeles
8. What You Were
9. Sunset Park
10. Wedding
11. What Will Come
More about: Angels Of Light
