This is the closest that Angels of Light ever came to Gira's bare bones solo work; ...Other People is a stripped down acoustic, folky romp that sees Gira and co. writing homages in song form to people that...well, deserve songs written about them, I guess. It's all very artsy-fartsy, and whilst I don't feel it's the best Angels of Light album in any universe, there is still a fair dollop of good tunes here.
The first notable difference here is that drums (or percussion generally) are absent for the entire album, rendering the whole thing with more of a Gira 'n' Pals kinda vibe than a full-blown Angels of Light record. For the most part, the songs are driven by Michael Gira's voice and a simple acoustic guitar, decorated now and then with some other sparse instrumentation and gang-style backing vocals on the choruses.
My favourite song by a country mile is "Destroyer", although there is a whole bunch of decent tunes here, such as "On The Mountain", "Michael's White Hands" and "Purple Creek". For me, this is a funny one in the Angels of Light discography; in no way would I consider it vital, like How I Loved You, or We Are Him, but it is also by far the easiest Angels record to get a hold of on wax. I got this for a tenner, which was an absolute bargain considering how much original presses of earlier records of theirs cost.
In a short conclusion then; worth a listen if you enjoy the softer side of Swans or Michael Gira's solo work (the acoustic stuff, rather than the abstract stuff), but for beginners I'd say definitely start with one of the above-mentioned records rather than this one.
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