My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky

My Father Will Guide Me up a Rope to the Sky is the eleventh studio album by Swans released on September 23, 2010;it is their first studio recording in 14 years. Swans founder Michael Gira funded the recording of this album by creating the limited-edition album I Am Not Insane and chose several collaborators from previous Swans line-ups as well as his side project Angels of Light to record and tour for this album. My Father Will Guide Me up a Rope to the Sky has received positive critical feedback for the return of Swans as well as the rich spiritual themes of the lyrics.

In a 2009 interview, Gira hinted at the prospect of resurrecting the Swans project.Later that year, many of the tracks would appear on My Father Will Guide Me up a Rope to the Sky were released in demo and acoustic form on I Am Not Insane and sold in order to fund the recording process for this album. Gira handmade 1,000 copies of that album to fund the new Swans recordings.In January 2010, Gira amended the band’s Facebook and MySpace to read “SWANS ARE NOT DEAD”—an announcement that the band had been reformed as well as a play on words from Swans’ live album Swans Are Dead.

Gira wrote the songs over a three-year period and decided that they were unfit for an Angels of Light album and he wanted to transition back the aggressive sound and “sonic intensity” of Swans.

The title of the album comes from the lyrics to an unreleased Swans song entitled “Oxygen” that depicts Gira dying and ascending to Heaven