Taken as a whole, the 10 tracks on Swans’ double album To Be Kind sound like what being caught in an obsessive train of thought feels like, when there’s no way of escaping your own silent psychosis. Swans fiddle with contradictions throughout their thirteenth album, as tunnels of noise give way to pensive moments, which then make room for Michael Gira’s echoing voice. At 34 minutes, the massive and initially lethargic “Sun-Touissant” eventually spills open, pursuing a variety of movements while grounding itself in the hushed-room tone of its foundation. To Be Kind confronts a variety of different sonic shapes throughout, but finds a kind of summation in the record’s unapologetically weird closing title track. Violent instrumentation presses up against the repeated final refrain, “There are millions and millions of stars in your eyes,” before the album concludes in a spastic purge. –Gabriela [LISTEN]