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Nov 1, 2019In its bone-chilling, earnest spirit, we witness Swans maintaining a power they never lost – we see them exceeding expectations, branding themselves as a seismic force in experimental rock, and here, they continue to touch on that greatness.
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Oct 25, 2019Gira, with the help of many talents, has concocted Swans’ most beautiful yet most bleak sounding record of its 30-plus years existence.
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Nov 26, 2019The latest iteration of Gira's fierce, frightening Swans is a quieter, subtler beast perhaps—but it's no less an intense, oppressive, challenging, and magical experience than those created on vinyl by their recent "classic" lineup. Torture it may be, but it's never felt so sweet.
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Q MagazineNov 19, 2019Anyone wanting more of the multilayered sense of foreboding afforded by 2016's The Glowing Man, Meanwhile, will be delighted by the pulverising Sunfucker and The Hanging Man. [Jan 2020, p.114]
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Nov 13, 2019Vocally, Leaving Meaning is especially strong, with an atypical abundance of words appearing to have pushed Gira to experiment with their delivery.
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Nov 4, 2019Gira’s ability to look at the world and show us how terrifying it is continues to reap rewards. It might not throughout be what we’ve come to expect from Swans, but it is decidedly relevant.
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Nov 1, 2019It’s still haunting, and it’s still beautiful. It’s like a soundtrack to exploring some abandoned, centuries-old mansion in the middle of a desert, now filled with ghosts, lost memories, and cobwebs weaved around expensive furniture.
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MojoOct 25, 2019Whatever the sonic weather, Gira's spiritual austerity remains unimpaired.[Nov 2019, p.89]
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UncutOct 25, 2019The template remains intact, with monotony fundamental: The Necks lend the title track's repetitions a shimmering, slowly evolving transcendence, Anna Von Hauswolff and sister maria provide bloodcurdling shrieks on the devastating, pummelling "Sunfucker," and Baby Dee adds voodoo magic to "The Nub." [Dec 2019, p.32]
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Nov 13, 2019Sonically, the album backs away from the dirge-rock rave-ups that defined the group’s last four albums. That’s a welcome development.
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Classic Rock MagazineNov 13, 2019This is music to immerse yourself in, lose yourself within its many complexities and layers of sound, sudden explosions of light and directed commentary; always fascinating, challenging and densely packed. Sepulchral, sombre, challenging, claustrophobic. [Dec 2019, p.85]
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Oct 30, 2019Some songs stick to the usual anarchic ideas, "The Hanging Man" being a tasty cut worthy of inclusion on any forthcoming Best Of, but there are also introspective nightmare-lullabies like "Annaline," "Amnesia" and "Cathedrals of Heaven." ... Easygoing suits Gira.
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Nov 18, 2019In spite of my own misgivings towards Leaving Meaning., it is an admirable effort that doesn't tell us much about what the future has in store, but to make people aware that Swans aren't quite dead...yet.
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Nov 5, 2019The tracks do an excellent job at establishing a mood, but a lot of them don't particularly go anywhere. Leaving meaning. is a decent album, but ultimately it sounds like a sort of reset or palate cleanser that will hopefully lead up to something greater.
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Oct 25, 2019Leaving Meaning is a piece of blood-spattered Americana, a haunted-house version of the fabled American dream. But while Gira is a clever musician, that doesn’t make the world he’s created here a pleasant one to visit.
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The WireNov 20, 2019Leaving Meaning has all of the reassuring turgidity and tortured self-importance devotees have come to expect plus a cast of name contributors (The Necks, Ben Frost, Baby Dee, Anna von Hausswolff among others) for that vital essence of “Well, if they’re working with him, he’s probably OK, right?” [Dec 2019, p.57]
User score distribution:
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Positive: 29 out of 32
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Mixed: 1 out of 32
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Negative: 2 out of 32
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Oct 27, 2019Transcendent. Love the new direction. I hope this is fleshed out more in subsequent releases.
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Dec 29, 2019The best album released in 2019! It's not as good as their album TO BE KIND, but still amazing!
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Nov 19, 2019Como es habitual un disco de la hostia. En la línea de los anteriores pero algo más (anti)folk.