Michael Gira’s favourite David Bowie album: “One of the best rock albums ever made”
Swans leader Michael Gira is one of the most singular entities in music. A total creative force that has embarked on a sonic arc more astounding than any other, his constant metamorphosis and dedication to cerebral and utterly all-encompassing music make for a fascinating listening experience.
Whether it be the full-frontal no-wave of Swans’ early days, the gothic atmosphere of 1995’s The Great Annihilator, or the transcendental mastery of favourites such as Soundtracks for the Blind and To Be Kind, listening to Swans is to embark on a personal journey guided by the intensity of the frontman. It has consequential effects for all willing to give themselves up to it and be readily uncomfortable at points. Nothing of worth comes easy, as they say.
Despite Gira crafting some of the most hard-hitting sonic palettes the world has ever known, he also listens to music you might describe as mainstream. Influenced by the cinematic music of Walt Disney when a child and finding solace in the counterculture of the 1960s when a teenager, he named records by Bob Dylan, Kraftwerk, Pink Floyd, The Doors, and The Stooges among his favourites. These provide an interesting counterbalance to the likes of Throbbing Gristle, The Mothers of Invention, Arvo Pärt and the other niche innovators that inspired him so greatly.
One artist whose work Gira also enjoys is music’s greatest chameleon, David Bowie. When listing his favourite albums for The Quietus, he named his favourite record by the Londoner as 1972’s widely significant Ziggy Stardust, which he called “one of the best records ever made”, but then, in true form, caveated this by maintaining that Bowie only had ten good years, with the rest of his efforts “really dismal”.
Gira said: “He had ten really good years. The rest has been really dismal, unfortunately, in my opinion. But that album is a masterpiece in terms of arrangements and songwriting, everything.”
He added: “It manages to sort of rock, but at that same time, it has this sort of cabaret song aspect to it, and from a producer’s point of view, which I suppose you could call me, it’s impeccable: no sound gets in the way of another sound, it’s always changing with every four to eight bars. It’s as good as, if not better than, Sgt Pepper’s. One of the best rock albums ever made.”
Bowie’s fifth studio album marked a significant evolutionary step for the enigmatic musician’s enigmatic style, leaving behind an unimaginably vast cultural impact whose effects will be felt for many more years to come. Listen to Ziggy Stardust below.
