★★☆
Towards the beginning of John Berger’s seminal work of criticismWays Of Seeing, the writer presents a comparatively subtle Van Gogh painting of a crow standing in a field.
Turn over the page, and there’s Berger’s shocking addendum – it was the last artwork Van Gogh painted before he killed himself.
Context affects art. You can’t see Van Gogh’s field without thinking about death. By that same token, it’s hard to talk about Swans’ The Glowing Man without mentioning the sexual assault allegations made against the band’s leader Michael Gira by US singer Larkin Grimm – allegations that hang over this album like storm clouds. As a long-term obsessive Swans fan, would I like this album more if I tried to ignore such allegations? Undoubtedly. But when the record itself references sexual abuse, as on ‘When Will I Return?’, it’s impossible to listen to it passively.
No Swans album has ever been a pleasurable listen. But The Glowing Man isn’t the apocalypse of To Be Kind. It’s a yelp rather than a bellow – an underwhelming, difficult listen, and the strangest possible note the current Swans lineup could go out on.
Is it bad? No. But nor is it enjoyable, or well-constructed, or even particularly listenable. It’s just a footnote in a terrible story of alleged abuse.
Swans’The Glowing Manis out now through Mute / Create/Control.
