| How I Loved You | |
| Type: | Album |
| Artist: | Angels of Light |
| Cover: | Angels_of_Light_How_I_Loved_You.jpg |
| Released: | March 27, 2001 |
| Genre: | Folk rock |
| Length: | 69:57 |
| Label: | Young God |
| Producer: | Michael Gira |
| Prev Title: | New Mother |
| Prev Year: | 1999 |
| Next Title: | We Were Alive! |
| Next Year: | 2002 |
How I Loved You is the second studio album by American folk rock band Angels of Light. Produced by band leader Michael Gira, it was released on March 27, 2001, via Gira's own record label, Young God Records. The album features contributions from Bee and Flower bassist and vocalist Dana Schechter, drummer Thor Harris, singer-songwriter Bliss Blood and ex-Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds guitarist Kid Congo Powers.
The cover art of the album depicts Gira's mother, Alice Schulte Gira, while the back cover features a picture of his father, Robert Pierre Gira.[1]
On the album's composition, band leader Michael Gira wrote on the website for Young God Records:
The album generally received positive reviews from music critics. Thom Jurek of Allmusic wrote: "Angels of Light's How I Loved You moves far from that terrain and into a zone of languid reverie, bittersweet longing, and crystalline excess," while also stating that the record "reveals, once more, that for Michael Gira and his Angels of Light, there are no contradictions, no gods, and no monsters in the caverns of love's secret domain." John Robinson of NME stated: "Like a dark meeting place for a tryst between Nick Cave and Sonic Youth, they take a funereal subject matter (e.g. "My Suicide"), and expand it over beautifully arranged and very huge spaces of time". Wilson Neate of Popmatters wrote: "Leonard Cohen once recorded a rather dark album called Songs of Love and Hate. The Angels of Light’s How I Loved You makes that record sound like a children’s birthday party," while another Popmatters reviewer, Jason Thompson, commented: "How I Loved You is a successful and unique collection of love songs."[2] [3] The latter writer also described the album as "harrowing, but passionate."[3]
Nevertheless, Richard M. Juzwiak of Pitchfork gave the album a negative review, stating: "The fact that Gira attempts the monumental, snug fit is admirable. Sure, he sounds like he means what he's saying, but his esoteric words seem born more out of self-satisfaction than pleasing listeners. Ultimately, conviction does not compensate for inaccessibility; Gira's calluses, you see, sound much more like warts."
Angels of Light
Additional personnel