Swans - The Beggar (2023) Album Review

Michael Gira's 37 year old Swans are moving into a post Seer/To Be Kind era, and if 2019's Leaving Meaning was an underappreciated collection of great songs, The Beggar is a more coherent (two hour long) album length statement as to what that looks like. Some of the most direct and powerful lyricism of his career, amongst what accounts to almost easy listening in this bands catalogue, with plenty of acoustic-led and pretty tracks, with deep existential lyrics. We'll still touch base with medieval torture music and have a forty-four minute long track, naturally. Still one of the best and most interesting rock bands on earth, in a period of transition.