This 16th album in just over four decades by the veteran American experimental band fronted Michael Gira brings brooding, dark menace, written in lockdown and recorded in Berlin, a moving, powerful contemplation of mortality that’s oddly stirring. Opener The Paradise unfolds with beautiful, otherworldly strings before the darkness of Gira’s deep, gravelly voice kicks in, and then sings “Am I ready to die?” on Paradise is Mine, sounding like something from a Kurt Weill musical. Standout track Los Angeles: City of Death has the driving flavour of The Velvet Underground about it. Michael Is Done has a slow, hovering hypnotic quality, just as the title track does. An unnerving, but transfixing release all the way to closing track The Memorious. Out on Young God Records/ Mute.
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