User ratings in Music are temporarily disabled. More info
They Came Like Swallows Image
Metascore
77

Generally favorable reviews - based on 4 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
tbd

No user score yet- Be the first to review!

  • Summary: The seven track collaboration between Thurston Moore and Bonner Kramer is said to be "a prayer to the war-torn souls of the families of Palestine."
Buy Now
Buy on
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 4
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 4
  3. Negative: 0 out of 4
  1. May 22, 2026
    80
    Kramer and Moore interact with each other's fiery and ungovernable sounds effortlessly, often finding anger and peace within the same tune. They craft an atmosphere that stays in this tenuous balance for the entirety of the album, acknowledging suffering and universal loss while always keeping the hope for something better as a guiding light.
  2. May 22, 2026
    80
    Moore’s playing style retains the idiosyncratic features that rendered it a totemic and canonical part of experimental and alternative music. Kramer’s additions, however, reveal layers of emotion to Moore’s improvisation, which becomes a form of unconscious emotional expression.
  3. May 22, 2026
    70
    While Moore’s contributions here are instantly recognizable—that guitar sound only comes from one place—Kramer’s are more elusive, a twinkle of piano in the maelstrom, an enveloping ambience of (maybe?) synth tones, the thud and ritual of percussion.
  4. Uncut
    May 22, 2026
    70
    Ritual invocations are summoned by suggestive titles as much as music, setting the improv in its moment. [Jul 2026, p.31]