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Album Review: Swans - To Be Kind

Andrew McDonald

To Be Kind is a masterwork of the highest order, one of 2014’s finest releases, and a highlight from a 30-year-plus discography.

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Experimental rockers Swans release another relentlessly punishing record in To Be Kind, blending noise-rock, funk grooves and long, jamming gothic rock into a cohesive and beautiful, if intimidating, sound. The record flies by, despite lasting over two hours, yet its length, and its noise passages and repletion-as-ideal riffs, will surely alienate many. For those who give it the chance it deserves, magic will be found. To Be Kind is a masterwork of the highest order, one of 2014's finest releases, and a highlight from a 30-year-plus discography.