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Buoyed by the critical success of “White Light From the Mouth of Infinity’ and clearly reveling in having control over his music through his own record label, Michael Gira’s Swans delivered arguably their most confident-sounding album in 1992’s ‘Love of Life’. The briefest of samples precedes the arrival of the title track with its pounding drums and hypnotic rhythm. It is followed by ‘The Golden Boy That Was Swallowed By The Sea’ which combines spiritual lyrics with a beautiful, expansive melody. The sound throughout the record reminds me a little of ‘The Burning World’s’ eastern influences but amplified hugely with more emphasis on rock guitars. Fascinating snippets of sound and vocal samples, untitled in the track listing, pepper the album adding to its atmosphere wonderfully and also indicating how the band sounded live in this period (I was lucky enough to see them play in London in 1992). Songs like ‘Golden Boy..’, ‘The Other Side of The World’ and ‘In the Eyes of Nature’ are big-sounding enough to be stadium anthems in some parallel universe where the majority appreciates intelligent rock music, but Gira also demonstrates that he has not lost his famous intensity of artistic expression in the pounding, doom-laden ‘Amensia’ and the bitterly beautiful ‘God Loves America’. Self-produced by Gira, the balance of sound is perfect between power and melodic beauty. This record still sounds thrilling 15 years after its release and is highly recommended.Read full review
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