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Jun 4, 2014To Be Kind is as vital and unsettling as anything they’ve ever done, and displays a mastery of their craft that seems almost automatic at this point.
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Kerrang!Jun 4, 2014Swans are a feast of musical riches, and To Be Kind is kind of essential. [10 May 2014, p.54]
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May 13, 2014Brash, polarizing, fearless and filled with a purity of vision that would make Col. Kurtz blanch.
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May 12, 2014Here, Gira shows that the Swans resurgence isn’t a fluke. Not even close.
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May 9, 2014It might be the most accessible Swans album yet. The long stretches of abstract noise are draped over some surprisingly catchy hooks. A few moments might even qualify as singalong road trip anthems.
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May 7, 2014A two-hour odyssey of similar proportions to The Seer, this is an album that emphasises rather than establishes Swans' reconfirmed position at the top of the experimental rock tree, but that doesn’t make it any less of a thrill.
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May 13, 2014There is no end to the nuances and subtleties that lay within. Find your starting point and start exploring.
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May 12, 2014He’s responded in the best way possible: by producing a record that, in structure and scale, is every bit The Seer’s equal, yet possessed by a peculiar energy and spirit that proves all the more alluring in its dark majesty.
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May 14, 2014To Be Kind is a loving ode to chaos, full of deranged, mutant energy and even more brilliant for it.
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May 13, 2014To Be Kind does as much soul exposure lyrically as it does musically, Gira’s simple, howled lines finding the vein incredibly easily.
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May 13, 2014Throughout To Be Kind, it seems as if Swans can barely contain Gira’s vision of what his music can surround, conquer, and absorb.
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May 16, 2014Three full studio albums into their reinvigorated latest phase, and Swans’ ability to surprise remains as potent as ever To Be Kind might just be the most startling and uncompromising of the trio, although these qualities take time to unveil themselves.
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May 13, 2014[An] all-consuming a ritual as rock music is capable of giving us, and also as viscerally, joyously life-affirming.
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May 12, 2014It’s an insane and challenging, ambitious and exceptional work of art.
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May 12, 2014To Be Kind launches them further along their trajectory toward this exalted condition, and at its peaks, it witnesses a dawning of an even-more-primary mode of consciousness: love.
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May 9, 2014Despite clearly being intricately crafted down to the tiniest gestures--musical feats at this level of intensity and control don't emerge from half-arsed noodling--To Be Kind's songs also feel more fluid and open-ended than before, expressive and rich in possibility.
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May 7, 2014To Be Kind is altogether more colourful, an expansive record--fleshier, bloodier and lusciously psychedelic.... Near perfection.
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Classic Rock MagazineDec 18, 2014To Be Kind is evidence that they continue to grow and may not have reached their peak yet. It's superb for now, though. [Summer 2014, p.90]
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The WireJul 17, 2014To Be Kind is even moodier and more desolate than 2012's The Seer.... The more structured, traditional tracks don't cut quite as deep, largely because they echo other groups, at times overtly. [May 2014, p.68]
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May 30, 2014You could even argue that To Be Kind is Gira’s first rock ‘n’ roll album, and though Swans’ records are invariably seedy, To Be Kind is downright sexy, tender like a snake and surprisingly intimate.
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Q MagazineMay 20, 2014Putting it on is less like listening to an album and more like scaling a mountain. [Jun 2014, p.121]
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MojoMay 15, 2014Given its length, trying to tackle To Be Kind n one sitting might feel like the musical equivalent of scaling Everest, but with so many dizzying peaks along the way the effort is well rewarded. [Jun 2014, p.90]
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May 13, 2014The dynamic range on the album is, quite literally, startling.
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May 12, 2014To Be Kind continues a run of evermore committed, detailed and powerful work since the band formed again with a new lineup four years ago.
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May 12, 2014Incredibly, they're becoming even less safe, even less predictable, as they near pension age; on this evidence, long live Michael Gira.
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May 12, 2014People are still willing to give music their time and money. With albums like To Be Kind, it’s easy to see why.
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May 7, 2014To Be Kind is a unique and wonderful achievement from a unique and wonderful band.
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May 7, 201432 years on from Swans' formation, Michael Gira is not only still moving forward, but making some of the albums of his career. [Jun 2014, p.81]
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May 7, 2014Michael Gira is a man unafraid to follow his muse wherever it may take him, and To Be Kind is another example of his singular vision writ large without compromise.
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Jun 27, 2014Well into their fourth decade, with the aughts years spent in hibernation, Swans are still making records of brilliance and majesty.
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May 13, 2014The nine lengthy works contained in the 2-CD/3-LP To Be Kind require an investment of attention. But as with any engrossing film, time isn't a factor, and a full immersion reveals that any abridgments would have lessened these songs' impact.
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Jun 6, 2014This behemoth (double album or double CD) is an intriguing release which really requires the listener to get involved.
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May 13, 2014These days, they don't just crush--they hypnotize.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 263 out of 291
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Mixed: 7 out of 291
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Negative: 21 out of 291
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May 13, 2014This is not experimental music, this is pure power delivered by Thor himself, or Mr. Gira as we have known him since he formed Swans. Musik, non stop!
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Jun 16, 2014
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May 13, 2014