Longevity is rare in rock and roll, but so too is the consistency expected of familiar names. Following a reunion and solid album release in 2023, Swans prepare once more to offer their alternative sound. I Am a Tower, their twenty-minute lead single for upcoming album, Birthing, is a test not of a listener’s strength, but of the band’s ability to continue creating in a creatively satisfying way. Conviction is everything. I Am a Tower must serve as a roaring, wide-ranging example of the post-rock work Swans is still creating. The Beggar, their preceding album, was an exceptional experience and featured those lengthy tracks. The issue is not in hearing whether Michael Gira and the band can do it, but whether they can convincingly do it again, with enough fresh influences on their sound. I Am a Tower is a self-described search for truth.
Overwhelmed by the drone rock and ritual-like experience of Gira, who would not sound out of place if he started chanting the name of an old and forgotten beast of our imaginations, sounds mixed. His prophecies, be it the Moby Dick references of blubber and scum to the matured man with a hand in crudity, are backed by an explosive instrumental range. They take a while to take place, but once they do it is the hammering, the echoes of noise and band-wide capitulation which gives I Am a Tower its concrete perspective. I Am a Tower feels like a full stop for Swans. Birthing has the feeling of finality. This is Gira and the band with one last stance against a world which, to them, makes little sense. Lyrical flourishes hear Gira accept the changing tides but fight against the current anyway, and it is this defiance that cements the art-rock and poetry blur Swans has been seeking on this reunion trip. This is not an end to Swans as an active unit but an acceptance of slowing down, of changing gear.
Reflections of magnitude are what Gira aims for here, and he manages it well with a monumental song which does not bear the weight of its length. I Am a Tower offers enough variety, enough to unpack on future listens, to warrant returning to. Birthing will no doubt have more of the same, but the beauty of I Am a Tower is losing yourself to the battle which rages in anyone with an awareness of the world around them. At what point is giving up the right call? Accept the spoils of hard-fought battles and, even when realising you are the last man standing, reflect on the futility. I Am a Tower offers a battle cry with variety, with some incredible percussion and guitar pairings pouring through the latter half. Defiance is the key but Gira, who has been around and gripping this rebellion for decades, is letting his grip slip.
Not in a sense of reduced spectacle or lesser music, but in accepting the lack of change in the world around him. What has changed is for the worse; what has not is observed from the tower. Gira finds the fire to continue, but I Am a Tower hears him struggle with bringing the fight on as fast as he could in previous releases. A constant droning, the pangs of doubt which come and the back-and-forth between Gira’s wordplay and the occasional instrumental thrill highlight this well. An impressive accomplishment from the group which will no doubt have an extra layer of context added when paired with the rest of the album, but even on its own, there is more than enough to unpack. This may work more for those who have not experienced the full range of Swans. What they do here is likely a lesser version of a previous project, and yet the ritualistic statements, the foolish hopes of a brighter tomorrow and the sparks of wit found within the writing, are enough to carry I Am a Tower.
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