Michael Gira's transformation from avenging noise punk in the Swans to elder neo-folk statesman has been an enthralling one. Now over 50, Gira is making some of the best music of his career, a streak that
We Are Him continues. Full of cues taken from gothic Americana,
Him lurches with playing that is dry, precise, yet full of sinewy feeling. At the heart of this music is Gira's voice. Like Waits or latter-day Dylan, Gira has long understood that his matter-of-fact baritone gives him a presence that conventional voices cannot attain: a voice that leaks authority, experience and wisdom.
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