Michael Gira closes his latest incarnation of SWANS in defiant, majestic fashion on ‘Birthing’, their 26th studio release.
On Swans’ new album Birthing (Young God Records/Mute, May 30, 2025), band mastermind Michael Gira delivers what he describes as his “final foray… into the all-consuming sound worlds” that have defined the band’s sonic identity since their formation in 1982, and every subsequent iteration, growing more layered, full-bodied and cinematic with each album and cast of collaborators.
Going forward, he’s hinted at a more stripped-down approach, which makes Birthing a staggering, transcendent finale of their current incarnation.
Swans have always operated less like a band and more as a conduit for something both profane and spiritual, residing in a kind of aural purgatory that keeps the listener in a cycle of trauma and healing. With its meticulously layered compositions and psychic heft, Birthing extends the lineage of past albums The Seer, To Be Kind, and 2023’s The Beggar, but with a palpable sense of finality that makes for a heightened listening experience.
Click here for my 2023 interview with Michael Gira
Gira’s voice remains commanding, but he cedes space here to choral textures and ghostly feminine counterpoints that haunt the mix. These voices don’t offer comfort so much as expand the emotional palette and make the proceedings all the more affecting.
Opening track The Healers unfurls like an occult ritual, culminating in a cacophonous tidal wave of sound with Gira’s vocals erupting from the mix, approximating a preacher espousing hell and damnation.
A labyrinthine odyssey of dread and disorientation, The Merge begins with a torturous sonic assault, which juxtaposed with a toddler’s baby talk, makes for a disturbing listening experience. Birthing employs a similar technique: a hybrid texture of a child’s voice buried under snarling washes of buzzsaw guitar and thunderous percussion to unnerving effect.
One of the album’s most striking moments comes in I Am a Tower, perhaps the most overtly political song Gira has ever written. A scorched earth take on Trump, it builds slowly, amplifying the the tension and discontent.
At on point, Gira snarls, “I’m searching for truth in the fat folds of your blunder. Speak up, Dick! Bring wonder. Bring plunder,” before the song veers into a riff on Bowie’s “Heroes”, an intentional echo, perhaps, given the Berlin setting where the album was recorded. Is that a reference to our current desperate need of heroes? Who knows, but it makes for fascinating counterpoint to the acrid lyrics.
The reference to Trump’s asinine declaration from his 2016 RNC speech (“I alone can fix it”) is unmistakable. In Gira’s vision, the (Trump) Tower isn’t a symbol of power, but a ruin: a crumbling monument to delusion, narcissism and corruption. Written before Trump’s reelection, the song lands with even more portent amid his current chaotic reign.
The album closes with (Rope) Away, a deeply emotive piece that functions as a meditation on the journey from womb to tomb, capturing all the bewildering, joyous, and tragic moments in between. It may be one of the most moving compositions of Gira’s career, both musically and lyrically, with his ultimately peaceful take on death: “Where have they all gone? Where have we all gone? Gone, gone, gone…We’ll drift away in dreams tonight… Away, away, away, away, and gone.”
This journey from cradle to grave isn’t just an exploration of mortality; it also mirrors the death of this era of Swans. How the next iteration will compare or contrast to what’s come before is anyone’s guess. But Birthing stands as a definitive closing statement, and one of the most powerful albums in the band’s catalog.
TOUR DATES
September 4 Philadelphia, PA Union Transfer
September 5 Washington, DC The Howard Theatre
September 6 Norfolk, VA The NorVa
September 9 Dallas, TX Granada Theater
September 10 Austin, TX Mohawk Austin
September 12 Albuquerque, NM Sunshine Theater
September 13 Tucson, AZ The Rialto Theatre
September 15 Los Angeles, CA Lodge Room
September 16 Los Angeles, CA Lodge Room
September 17 Los Angeles, CA Lodge Room
September 20 San Francisco, CA Great American Music Hall
September 21 San Francisco, CA Great American Music Hall
September 23 Seattle, WA The Neptune Theatre
September 24 Portland, OR Revolution Hall
September 27 Denver, CO Bluebird Theater
September 28 Omaha, NE Waiting Room Showroom
September 30 Chicago, IL Cabaret Metro
October 1 Detroit, MI The Magic Bag
October 3 Toronto, ON Phoenix Concert Theatre
October 4 Montreal, QC Théâtre National
October 6 Boston, MA Paradise Rock Club
October 7 Brooklyn, NY Brooklyn Steel
