Swans | ||
| Allmusic Biography : Swans were born during the heyday of New Yorks no wave reaction to punk rock, on the Lower East Side. Led by brainchild, guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter Michael Gira, the group was formed after the demise of his first New York outfit, Circus Mort. Swans first lineup consisted of Gira, guitarist Sue Hanel, and drummer Jonathan Kane. The trio played with kindred spirits Sonic Youth and did some rudimentary recordings that showcased the abrasive, percussively assaultive sonics Swans were later identified with. These initial sides surfaced on the Body to Body, Job to Job compilation. A different lineup included Kane, guitarist Bob Pezzola, and Daniel Galli-Duani on saxophone; they released a self-titled EP in 1982. The personnel changed again for the bands powerful debut, Filth, issued in 1983 on Germanys Zensor imprint. It included Gira, Kane, guitarist Norman Westberg, bassist Harry Crosby, and percussionist/drummer Roli Mosimann. Swans began to garner an audience in Europe. Kane left after Filth was released, and Swans, who were becoming known for their sheer musical brutality as well as Giras lyrics about violence, extreme sex, power, rage, and the margins of human depravity (sometimes in the same song), began to garner a cult following at home with the release of 1984s Cop. The sound was essentially the same: extreme volume, slower than molasses tempos, detuned guitars, distorted electronics, and overamped drums and percussion, but there were discernible traces of something approaching melody in Giras compositions and vocalizing. Further evidence of this new "accessibility" was heard on 1985s untitled EP, which featured the provocatively titled "Raping a Slave." It later became the EPs title. Swans touring was relentless, and while anything even approaching popularity avoided them in the United States, their European audiences grew exponentially. The band issued the EP Time Is Money (Bastard) and the full-length Greed at the beginning of 1986 and another album, Holy Money, and the A Screw EP later. Holy Money marked a real change in the bands sound, though its tactics were largely the same: the entrance into the band of two new influential presences: vocalist/keyboardist Jarboe and bassist Algis Kizys, who began, albeit subtly at first, to shift the bands attack into something less assaultive sonically yet no less jarring emotionally. Jarboe and Kizys would remain members of Swans until the groups extended hiatus began in 1997. Jarboe, who actually was a member of the band as early as Holy Money, would become a settled, foil-like presence for Gira as co-lead vocalist. Her presence signified the addition of a new set of dynamics and textures to the more brutal soundscapes the band put forth in its past. That said, when called upon to do so, she was no less primal or forceful than Gira as a singer. In 1987 the band moved to Caroline Records and issued Children of God, a double album that marked the real transition between the two parts of the band’s sound. Gira openly embraced the softer aspects being added to Swans sonic architecture. Further evidence is provided by the beginning of Gira and Jarboe’s new side project, Skin (World of Skin in the United States), whose first album, Blood, Women, Roses, on which Jarboe was featured on lead vocals, was released. A subsequent album, Shame, Humility, Revenge, with Gira on lead vocals, was also recorded at the same time, but released a year later. The German-only Swans set Real Love, a semi-official bootleg, was issued in 1987. Another double album, Feel Good Now, was issued by Rough Trade Records in 1988. Interestingly, despite Swans gaining attention for their own material (they regularly appeared in the pages of the British weeklies and each new release brought more laudatory ink) and even placing albums on the indie charts lower rungs, it was ironically a single, a cover of Joy Divisions immortal "Love Will Tear Us Apart," that climbed the independent charts in June, and nearly topped them. Fantastically, Swans were offered -- and signed -- a contract with major label MCA Records. "Saved," their first single for the label, was almost mainstream, given the band’s roots. The subsequent album, The Burning World, produced by Bill Laswell, featured another cover; this one a gorgeous reading of Blind Faiths "Cant Find My Way Home." The aggressive, savage brutality of the band’s earlier recorded sound had been almost entirely supplanted by a much more somber, elegiac, and acoustic approach to music-making, with lyrics sung (rather than shouted or screamed) in duet between Gira and Jarboe; Westberg played as much acoustic guitar as electric, Jarboe’s keyboards all but floated through the mix, and Kizys employed the upper ranges of his bass as never before. The record didnt sell enough to please MCA, however, and the band was dropped. Live performances from Swans were another story. The group continued to play violent music at outrageous volumes that were punishing for audience members, and sometimes displayed shocking and provocative stage antics. Crowds only grew. With critical backlash mounting and the band faced with new listeners, Gira gambled -- or reacted, depending on whose point of view one listens to. Instead of following up The Burning World with another album, he formed his own label, Young God, and spent the next few years reissuing earlier Swans material. Gira and Jarboe issued their final World of Skin album, Ten Songs for Another World, in 1990, but Swans didn’t release another album until the stellar White Light from the Mouth of Infinity appeared in 1991. It was their most commercially viable yet adventurously experimental set to date, with a myriad of textures, dynamics, and sophisticated production techniques. Various forms of electronics were added to the other instruments, creating depth and dimension in the band’s sound. The band toured the album in front of its largest audiences. In 1992 Swans issued the full-length Love of Life and the live set Omniscience. In 1993 Jarboe released her first solo project, Beautiful People Ltd., in collaboration with keyboardist Lary Seven, offering an entirely different side of her mysterious multi-octave vocal persona in Swans -- it was a collection of neo-psychedelic pop songs. Gira, meanwhile, wrote fiction in earnest, resulting in the publication of his first book, The Consumer and Other Stories, published by Henry Rollins 2.13.61 Press in 1995. Swans also resurfaced with the lauded The Great Annihilator. Jarboe issued her second solo offering, Sacrificial Cake, and Gira released his first solo album, Drainland, to boot. After touring with all the new material, the band reconvened later in the year to begin recording Soundtracks for the Blind, which was issued by Young God in 1996. The band did a final tour before Gira announced in early 1997 that Swans were finished. He began a new recording project that focused on his songwriting called the Angels of Light, and continued running Young God, a label that became an innovative force in independent music. Jarboe pursued a successful solo career, often employing former members of Swans as well as collaborating with artists including Tools Maynard James Keenan and Jesus Justin Broadrick, to name just two of the dozens. Gira also continued writing and publishing fiction. In 2009, news surfaced via the Young God home page that Gira might reconvene Swans for a set of songs he had written. In early 2010 the words "SWANS ARE NOT DEAD" appeared on his MySpace page. The new version of the band consisted of former as well as new members including guitarists Westberg and Christoph Hahn, drummer/percussionist Phil Puleo and drummer Thor Harris, and bassist Chris Pravdica. The band recorded the album My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky, which was released in September of 2010 on Young God. The live album We Rose from Your Bed with the Sun in Our Head followed in 2012 (initially released in a handmade limited edition with bonus tracks). In August of that year, Swans released the sprawling double album The Seer, an album that Gira claimed was 30 years in the making. Gira and his collaborators were hardly short on ideas by this point, and following another limited release titled Not Here/Not Now, they released another double album, 2014s To Be Kind, which featured guest vocals from St. Vincent and Cold Specks. The album was an unprecedented success for the band, earning unanimous critical acclaim as well as unexpectedly hitting the Top 40 on both the U.S. and U.K. album charts. After the albums success, Gira announced that the forthcoming Swans tour and album would both be the last by the existing lineup of the group. Following The Gate, another limited double-CD of live recordings and demos, Swans released The Glowing Man, yet another ambitious double album, in 2016. | ||
 | Album: 1 of 41 Title: Swans Released: 1982 Tracks: 4 Duration: 19:22 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 Laugh (04:07) 2 Speak (04:31) 3 Take Advantage (04:28) 4 Sensitive Skin (06:16) |
 | Album: 2 of 41 Title: Filth Released: 1983 Tracks: 13 Duration: 56:08 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Stay Here (05:36) 2 Big Strong Boss (03:02) 3 Blackout (03:46) 4 Power for Power (05:53) 5 Freak (01:13) 6 Right Wrong (04:42) 7 Thank You (03:52) 8 Weakling (05:20) 9 Gang (03:19) 10 Speak (04:31) 11 Laugh (04:06) 12 Sensitive Skin (06:16) 13 Take Advantage (04:27) |
| Filth : Allmusic album Review : With only Gira and Kane carrying over from the first EPs lineup, the truly bizarre thing about Swans first full release is that, in its own angry-beyond-all-anger way, you can actually dance to it at very brief points. Admittedly, spasmodic jerking-around might be the more expected response (and given that Gira physically attacked an audience member at a show around the time of this albums release for "getting into it too much," may be the safer one). But the point remains that the overwhelming angst and death on songs like "Big Strong Boss," with lyrics like "Cut my throat, kill me snake, do what I say, youre the boss, " sometimes gets married close enough to a groove that its almost surprising. For the most part, though, the drums (courtesy in part of future Young Gods producer Roli Mosimann) pound away almost like a ritual, doomy bass and grinding guitars sound like prime Black Sabbath at even danker levels of destruction, and Gira sounds like hes ripping his soul from his throat every time another lyric is half-barked, half-wailed, sometimes with the help of a little electronic distortion. As might be guessed, the only light in the lyrical tunnels comes from an oncoming train, as song titles like "Power for Power" and "Weakling" would indicate; even "Thank You" has lines such as "This smells sour, burn my face." Norman Westbergs guitar work has a definite power to it, and occasional studio manipulations like the chopped-up/sped-up "Freak" keep things interesting, but by the end it all gets a bit much. In small doses, though, its great, and early Swans really is like little else on the planet before or since. | ||
 | Album: 3 of 41 Title: Cop Released: 1984 Tracks: 8 Duration: 40:41 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Half Life (04:18) 2 Job (04:45) 3 Why Hide (05:50) 4 Clay Man (05:05) 5 Your Property (04:46) 6 Cop (06:47) 7 Butcher (04:00) 8 Thug (05:10) |
| Cop : Allmusic album Review : Consisting of a four-piece lineup -- Mosimann on drums, Westberg on guitar, Harry Crosby on bass, and naturally Gira on vocals -- on their second full album Swans add even more vicious crunch to their basic approach, resulting in quite possibly one of the darkest recordings ever done. Giras words come across a little more forcefully and cleanly than before, and the existential horror shows that he details, almost always phrased in confessional/accusatory "I - you" terms, make up in sheer power what they lack in any kind of subtlety. For example, typical lyrics, from the snarling "Your Property" state: "I give you money -- youre superior. I dont exist. You control me." Matching his at-times unearthly moans and cries perfectly, the pounding music mostly consists of one slow, descending chord progression or a repetitive series of one or two notes after another, extending the power of loud feedback and amped drums to indescribably forceful effect. The opening grind alone on "Why Hide," as Westberg stretches out his strings behind Mosimann and Crosbys pummeling, is crushing enough before Gira delivers a harrowing vocal. The most legendary track from the album is the title cut; as a vicious anti-boys-in-blue rant finds its equal only in N.W.A.s "Fuck Da Police." With such thoroughly bilious Gira lines as "Nobody rapes you like a cop in jail" providing the mental pictures, a slow, steady punch of music gets slowly but surely more aggressive and destructive as the song unfolds to its raging conclusion. Jim Thirlwell, aka Foetus, helps contribute to the apocalyptic noise on the release, but you somehow figure that Swans would have reached this state quite well on their own regardless. Ugly, compelling, and overpowering, Cop remains the pinnacle of Swans brutal early days. | ||
 | Album: 4 of 41 Title: A Screw Released: 1986 Tracks: 3 Duration: 15:35 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 A Screw (Holy Money) (mix) (05:41) 2 Blackmail (04:54) 3 A Screw (05:00) |
 | Album: 5 of 41 Title: Public Castration Is a Good Idea Released: 1986 Tracks: 8 Duration: 1:13:54 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Money Is Flesh (12:06) 2 Fool (08:08) 3 A Screw (07:27) 4 Anything for You (09:09) 5 Coward (08:33) 6 A Hanging (12:32) 7 Stupid Child (05:40) 8 Another You (10:16) |
| Public Castration Is a Good Idea : Allmusic album Review : In a doom-laden, bass-heavy start, Public... opens with "Money Is Flesh" rumbling to life in the nearest equivalent to Chinese water torture that loud rock has ever achieved; when Gira starts his tremendous ranting almost five minutes in, the effect only gets that much more intense. This long out-of-print semi-official bootleg, given a formal re-release in 1999, succeeds admirably at its goal of capturing live Swans in excelsis as avatars of destruction, corruption, and domination. Recorded at a series of English dates in support of Holy Money, Public... covers tracks from both that album and Greed, plus a stomping, almost ritualistic version of "A Screw" where things get all that much more vicious by the second, especially when the introduction of huge amounts of echo and background feedback kicks in, leading to Giras final anguished roars of "Holy! Holy!" again and again. The strong band lineup at this point was Gira, Jarboe, Westberg with his wrenching guitar work, Kizys on equally extreme bass, and two drummers, Gonzalez and Parsons, all working together brilliantly to blast the unique Swans vision of music and life into probably utterly unsuspecting (and apparently at times stunned-silent) audiences. Tracks which came across as a touch more subtle on record, aim for the extreme here. For example, while "Fool," here in its piano and guitar version from Greed, still mostly consists of just that, Giras vocals are even more wracked than before. Gonzalez and Parsons brutal drum work continues its overwhelming feel from track to track, almost making the disc sound like separate movements of one very dark modern symphony indeed. While its hard to pick out any one moment where everything is at its peak, the conclusion of "A Hanging" -- all percussion and Giras echoed, wordless shouts -- sticks for a very long time in the memory. In all, a truly mesmerizing, powerful release. | ||
 | Album: 6 of 41 Title: Greed Released: 1986 Tracks: 10 Duration: 56:27 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Fool (05:21) 2 Anything for You (04:32) 3 Nobody (04:49) 4 Stupid Child (05:19) 5 Greed (06:17) 6 Heaven (04:54) 7 Money Is Flesh (06:20) 8 Time Is Money (Bastard) (05:40) 9 Sealed in Skin (06:08) 10 Time Is Money (Bastard) (mix) (07:05) |
| Greed : Allmusic album Review : Featuring two bassists -- Crosby and newcomer Algis Kizys -- and no less than three drummers -- Gonzalez, Ted Parsons, and Ivan Nahem -- Greed marks the initial turning point of Swans towards more varied and ultimately even more astonishing musical heights than the early records, which were aggressive beyond all words, ever indicated. The opening track "Fool" demonstrates as much, being almost wholly piano-based, though the portentous echo of the notes along with grinding guitar noises underlying Giras ever-more commanding, raspy singing (as opposed to shouting) mean that its all still very much Swans. An increasing spaciousness and sense of more stripped-down arrangements also show up, along with some slightly more active tempos. "Anything for You" has Giras strangled wail of earlier days, but the music is a little calmer, a little more restrained; "Stupid Child" uses a delicate playing of cymbals as effectively as the expected slow percussion rumbles. Lyrically, unsurprisingly, things are little different from before, with images of utter self-loathing, power, domination, and economic corrosion of the soul dominating Giras words, though at times interesting new elements creep in as well. On "Heaven," for instance, Gira resignedly sings of a "heaven" which could be that of dying victims or of exhausted lovers, a fascinating double image. Jarboe makes her presence known on a number of songs, most effectively on the title track, where her wordless background vocals constantly loop in and out of the mix (notably, despite the title, Gira here sings of emotional isolation rather than the monetary greed expected given such other songs on the album as "Money Is Flesh," a slightly calmer semi-cousin to "Time Is Money (Bastard)"). | ||
 | Album: 7 of 41 Title: Holy Money Released: 1986 Tracks: 10 Duration: 51:28 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 A Hanging (05:48) 2 You Need Me (01:22) 3 Fool (#2) (05:50) 4 A Screw (Holy Money) (04:58) 5 Another You (07:44) 6 Money Is Flesh (#2) (05:02) 7 Coward (05:06) 8 A Screw (Holy Money) (mix) (05:41) 9 Blackmail (04:54) 10 A Screw (05:00) |
| Holy Money : Allmusic album Review : Also recorded at the sessions for Greed and A Screw (the album actually contains the "Holy Money" mix of said single), Holy Money is logically similar in general tone and feel to those releases, mixing the established Swans blueprint of lyrical and musical extremity with an ever-broader range and, at times, a broader delicacy than before. "A Hanging" helps to showcase Jarboes increasing role with the band. Her striking, semi-gospel wails mix with the storm-cloud-laden music, which builds into a massive tribal drum pattern, while Gira sings of self-sacrifice to what sounds like a very unforgiving deity. This immediately leads into the brief "You Need Me," where Jarboes haunting voice sings a lyric of apology solely over echoed piano. Such unexpected twists crop up throughout Holy Money, as the band engages in a fruitful search for new musical directions. Greeds "Fool" is revisited as "Fool #2," transformed into an equally ominous track, but this time accompanied by almost majestic electric guitar and drums along with the original piano and keyboards. Giras vocals are notably clearer in this piece, though the lyrics are hardly any less gentle. Another Greed track, "Money Is Flesh," gets its own drastic remake on the album as well. "Another You," meanwhile, has distinctly strange and beautiful -- in an alien way -- guitar scrapes and shades which provide texture to the lengthy track, with one of Giras most obsessive interpersonal lyrics (and one of his best vocals up to that time) further gracing it. Ending with "Coward" -- contrasting almost intimate if still haunted upfront Giras spoken vocals set against a buried series of his screams and shouts in the background of the mix over a repetitive crunch of guitar, bass, and drums -- Holy Money well documents the continuing transformation of Swans into a more complex, intriguing beast. | ||
 | Album: 8 of 41 Title: Feel Good Now Released: 1987 Tracks: 17 Duration: 1:19:14 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Intro (00:38) 2 New Mind (05:27) 3 Blood and Honey (07:10) 4 Trust Me (04:54) 5 Willy in Ravensburg (01:00) 6 Sex God Sex (09:46) 7 Various Audience Tricks (00:55) 8 Like a Drug (08:31) 9 Beautiful Child (05:42) 10 Blackmail (04:22) 11 Children of God (06:38) 12 Beautiful Reprise - The Town and Country Backstab Cowardice (02:31) 13 Thank You (00:54) 14 Various Audience Members (01:29) 15 Blind Love (18:36) 16 Hello to Our Friends (00:22) 17 Thank You, Goodbye. Good Luck. (00:11) |
| Feel Good Now : Allmusic album Review : At the time, being the first of the many semi-official bootlegs and live releases that Swans put out over the years, Feel documents the 1987 European tour for Children of God, recorded quite well on a professional walkman by the bands sound engineer. The track list exclusively focuses on Children material, so the album has much of the same general variety as its parent release, though all of the edges are a little rougher. "Blood and Honey," for example, maintains the synth-string arrangements from the album as well as Jarboes low, haunting vocals, but the louder instrumental breaks have a stronger power here. In the meantime, already overpowering songs like "New Mind" and "Beautiful Child" rage all that much harder in a live arena, with Gira holding little back, if at all. At the same time, a tune like "Trust Me" maintains the newer Giras commanding-yet-controlled croon amidst the more textured, elegant arrangement, though he definitely starts to let himself go more towards the end. Naming every highlight would take nearly forever, but special mention has to be made of "Children of God," featuring a fantastic call-and-response vocal tradeoff between Jarboe and Gira while the band brilliantly backs them up, and versions of "Sex God Sex" and especially "Blind Love," which make the album versions seem like gentle walks in the park by comparison. Another definite bonus on Feel is the demonstration of Swans hitherto hard-to-find sense of humor: "Willy in Ravensburg" is a recording of a PA tape of Willie Nelson with drunken audience response, while a number of tracks near the end document a variety of performance goofs and improvisations, including some muffled but amusing audience banter at points. | ||
 | Album: 9 of 41 Title: Children of God Released: 1987 Tracks: 14 Duration: 1:11:05 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 New Mind (05:13) 2 In My Garden (05:35) 3 Our Love Lies (05:50) 4 Sex, God, Sex (06:49) 5 Blood and Honey (04:47) 6 Like a Drug (Sha La La La) (05:33) 7 You’re Not Real, Girl (04:19) 8 Beautiful Child (05:16) 9 Blackmail (03:31) 10 Trust Me (04:27) 11 [untitled] (00:57) 12 Real Love (06:22) 13 Blind Love (07:46) 14 Children of God (04:34) |
| Children of God : Allmusic album Review : Kicking off with "New Mind" -- which, while having the same general pace of most earlier Swans songs, also sounds distinctly different with its clearer, inventive arrangement, call-and-response vocals, and Giras declamatory but not screamed lead vocal -- Children of God finds the band making their own particular great leap forward. The simmering changes that were apparent in the albums just before this ones release fully come to the fore, as Swans take the courage to explore both their huge-sounding, bombastic side and gentle, if often still disturbing, delicacy (due credit especially to Westberg, Kizys, and Parsons, possibly the best musical lineup Swans ever had until the final years). The results are fascinating, ranging from the spare piano melting into ambient feedback of "In My Garden" and the twisted gospel blues of "Our Love Lies" to the acoustic guitar and organ on "Youre Not Real, Girl" and the raging pounder "Beautiful Child." Equally importantly, if not more so, Jarboe now assumes a full role with Gira as co-leader of the band; while all lyrics are still Giras, the two share lead vocal duties (though aside from the title track, no duets) throughout the album. The weary, evocative croon which Gira developed into his major vocal trademark here emerges to full effect (though he can still roar with the best of them at points) while Jarboes cool, rich tones are simply astounding, as evidenced on an even more compelling version of "Blackmail," originally from the A Screw EP. Though Children is dedicated without any apparent irony to Jesus Christ, Giras words remain as irreverent, challenging, and obsessed with overarching issues of religion, power, sex, love, and control as before, but with an ever-increasing depth and beauty to match the lusher musical textures. With flute, oboe, and strings adding further texturing to the often quite lovely songs created by the band, Children remains perhaps the key album of Swans career -- the clear signpost towards their ever-more ambitious albums in the future. | ||
 | Album: 10 of 41 Title: The Burning World Released: 1989 Tracks: 10 Duration: 44:19 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 The River That Runs With Love Won’t Run Dry (04:14) 2 Let It Come Down (04:28) 3 Can’t Find My Way Home (04:48) 4 Mona Lisa, Mother Earth (04:16) 5 (She’s a) Universal Emptiness (04:02) 6 Saved (04:24) 7 I Remember Who You Are (04:23) 8 Jane Mary, Cry One Tear (03:51) 9 See No More (05:30) 10 God Damn the Sun (04:20) |
| The Burning World : Allmusic album Review : Swans first major-label record, for Uni/MCA, turned out to be their last, and Gira especially has been bitter about the experience ever since; his commentary about the album often involves his anger over Unis insistence on having noted New York musician Bill Laswell oversee the recording sessions (Gira himself states that he enjoys Laswells work in general, and thinks Burning was a case where agreement over how best to work together simply wasnt there). Ultimately Burning sounds more like a compromised major label Laswell project than a Swans album, to its overall detriment. To be sure, Giras complex, increasingly mythic and mystical lyrical images still retain their power, while his singing and Jarboes still each have their own, often gripping appeal. However, Westbergs playing, whether by choice or by Laswells direction, is more functional than striking at this point; in a more troubling move, Kizys and Parsons are completely absent (the latter joined Prong around this time), replaced by Laswell himself and session players. A number of regular Laswell partners like Nicky Skopelitis also assist throughout the album, providing a lot in the way of multicultural instrumentation that doesnt amount to much in terms of being interesting. Above all, little stands out as being distinctively Swans, being more slightly moody acoustic "world music" rock with electric shadings that is ultimately quite anonymous, lacking much of the dramatic power which informs Swans at their best, loud or soft. To be sure, there are some tracks of note: a Jarboe-sung version of Blind Faiths "Cant Find My Way Home" has a gentle appeal, while "(Shes A) Universal Emptiness" and "Jane Mary (Cry One Tear)" have their moments as well. Those aside, though, Burning is an otherwise general disappointment, mostly making fans thankful that the band rebounded as well as they did. | ||
 | Album: 11 of 41 Title: Anonymous Bodies in an Empty Room Released: 1990 Tracks: 8 Duration: 42:17 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Let It Come Down (07:20) 2 Blood on Your Hands (03:11) 3 A Girl in Need (02:34) 4 Will We Survive (06:17) 5 See No More (05:52) 6 Still a Child (04:47) 7 (She’s a) Universal Emptiness (05:16) 8 Miracle of Love (06:56) |
 | Album: 12 of 41 Title: Body to Body, Job to Job Released: 1991 Tracks: 16 Duration: 1:04:41 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Ill Cry For You (05:45) 2 Red Sheet (03:03) 3 Loop 33 (01:08) 4 Your Game (03:57) 5 Seal It Over (03:51) 6 Whore (03:59) 7 We’ll Hang for That (03:55) 8 Half Life (04:00) 9 Loop 21 (01:26) 10 Get Out (03:31) 11 Job (05:36) 12 Loop 1 (01:05) 13 Mother, My Body Disgusts Me (04:53) 14 Cop (06:01) 15 Only I Can Hear, Only I Can Touch (02:41) 16 Thug (09:42) |
| Body to Body, Job to Job : Allmusic album Review : Collecting a number of unreleased studio and live recordings from 1982 to 1985, including a variety of tracks that would be recorded for the Cop album, along with some tape loops used to back the band in performance, Body to Body, Job to Job understandably isnt anywhere near as cohesive as the often quite carefully arranged and sequenced studio Swans records. As an alternate peek at the band at work during their astonishingly extreme early years, though, this is true manna for Swans fanatics, if not even close to essential for most others. Following no specific chronological order, crisp studio performances rub up against near-mono club performance pieces ("Red Sheet," from an early CBGB show, has Gira raging "Get out!" over a particularly coruscating guitar), while the various loops, nearly all percussion-based, must have added even more to the feeling of oppressive power during live shows. Its definitely interesting to hear how variety, albeit at times of only slight degree, turns up as the band progresses; Giras howling on 1985s "Ill Cry for You" stands out from the music more, and has a little more control to it, than earlier death marches like "Well Hang for That." This said, some things are uniquely Swans, namely lyrics about power, control, death, and revulsion (best song title of the lot being "Mother, My Body Disgusts Me") over usually sludgy, harrowing rides through an extreme-rock hell; what would be tedious or laughable in other bands, though, always has a dark, invigorating appeal in the hands of Gira and company, even on outtakes like these. Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth is the most well-known of the rotating series of players with Swans credited on the album, though trying to find him specifically on any track is essentially impossible -- its very much Giras band here at this early stage, all the way. | ||
 | Album: 13 of 41 Title: White Light From the Mouth of Infinity Released: 1991-05-06 Tracks: 12 Duration: 1:09:18 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Better Than You (05:51) 2 Power and Sacrifice (05:37) 3 You Know Nothing (05:46) 4 Song for Dead Time (05:24) 5 Will We Survive (06:51) 6 Love Will Save You (06:06) 7 Failure (06:20) 8 Song for the Sun (05:03) 9 Miracle of Love (06:43) 10 When She Breathes (05:03) 11 Why Are We Alive? (05:29) 12 The Most Unfortunate Lie (05:02) |
| White Light From the Mouth of Infinity : Allmusic album Review : The opening track "Better Than You" almost says it all: Starting with the wail of an infant, then suddenly crashing into surging music that mixes quick, energetic drums with bells and other instruments, the song turns into a dramatic acoustic guitar/percussion piece with Giras brooding voice and Jarboes haunting backing; after some re-developments of the themes, it ends with a beautiful restatement of the sung section with additional guitar and bell sounds. At once incredibly destructive and astoundingly life-affirming -- and worth the entire Burning World album several times over -- "Better Than You" demonstrates that Swans had emerged from their major-label fiasco even more powerful and artistic than before, aiming for an awesome, all-encompassing majesty in their music that the admittedly hypnotic earlier versions of the band, in their brute forcefulness, simply could not have achieved. Interestingly, a number of players from Burning World and other Bill Laswell associates participate on White Light, but here Gira as sole producer marshals everyones collective efforts to heights that Laswell either was unwilling or unable to do. Also notably, Westberg is all but absent on guitar, with new arrival Clinton Steele taking the fore as the major instrumentalist after Gira and Jarboe themselves. Picking out all the highlights from such a stunning disc is practically impossible, but three of the flat-out classic marvels here are: "You Know Nothing," with its simply lovely introduction and Giras commanding singing; "Song for Dead Time," a gentle Jarboe-sung number filled out by a simple but effective string-synth arrangement; and "Failure," carried by a buried guitar strum, Giras Sisyphean lyric, and brief, lush choruses. Simply put, this is out and out brilliant as the clear starting point for the second half of Swans unique career. | ||
 | Album: 14 of 41 Title: Love of Life Released: 1992 Tracks: 17 Duration: 53:57 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 (—) (00:16) 2 Love of Life (03:41) 3 The Golden Boy That Was Swallowed by the Sea (04:31) 4 (—) (00:37) 5 (—) (02:06) 6 The Other Side of the World (04:39) 7 Her (05:24) 8 The Sound of Freedom (04:34) 9 (—) (00:34) 10 Amnesia (04:19) 11 Identity (04:30) 12 (—) (01:02) 13 In the Eyes of Nature (04:41) 14 She Crys (For Spider) (04:57) 15 God Loves America (03:43) 16 (—) (01:19) 17 No Cure for the Lonely (02:56) |
| Love of Life : Allmusic album Review : Interspersed with a variety of instrumental pieces and loops which add nicely to the albums overall flow -- including a number of random interview clips which would become an even more central motif to the bands work in future albums -- Love of Life continues the astounding creative roll Swans found themselves on with White Light. As with that album, the group here consists first and foremost of Gira and Jarboe, with a variety of assisting performers: Westberg has finally left the picture entirely, leaving Steele as the new main guitarist, and interestingly enough, two long-time veterans return -- the rhythm section of Kizys and Parsons -- though other bassists and drummers perform on the album as well. Again, though, this is very much Gira and Jarboes album, given that theyre in charge of all songwriting, as well as all keyboards and arrangements, building from the newly refined combination of epic scope and delicacy of touch from White Light. The first two full songs provide a near-perfect start for Love: The title track has a quick, rushed pace and pulse, with stabs of further percussion and keyboards to provide underscoring energy to Giras excellent singing, while "The Golden Boy That Was Swallowed by the Sea" captures Swans at their most self-consciously mythic, with a subtly descending chord defining the sweeping, string-heavy song as Gira invokes near Blakean images of crowds, shorelines, and the titular boy, laden with deceptively simple power. Jarboes own vocals, as ever, are exquisite, investing "The Other Side of the World" and her own lyric "She Crys (For Spider)" with her beautiful, rich singing. With such further successes as the first gentle then pounding love song "Her" (combined with a poignant interview clip) and the snarling kick of "Amnesia" to its overall credit as well, Love of Life unsurprisingly proves to be yet another Swans masterpiece. | ||
 | Album: 15 of 41 Title: Cop / Young God Released: 1992 Tracks: 12 Duration: 1:05:15 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Half Life (04:18) 2 Job (04:45) 3 Why Hide (05:50) 4 Clay Man (05:05) 5 Your Property (04:46) 6 Cop (06:47) 7 Butcher (04:01) 8 Thug (05:10) 9 I Crawled (05:40) 10 Raping a Slave (06:20) 11 Young God (07:03) 12 This Is Mine (05:25) |
| Cop / Young God : Allmusic album Review : This initial reissue of the Cop album and the initially untitled 1984 EP benefits from a full remastering overseen by Gira; no new or otherwise unavailable tracks were included beyond the original contents. At the time of its release, this double album was quite important given the out-of-print status of the original releases; however, this particular pairing has since been superseded by the Cop/Young God/Greed/Holy Money release in 1999. | ||
 | Album: 16 of 41 Title: Omniscience Released: 1992 Tracks: 12 Duration: 56:57 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Mother’s Milk (04:36) 2 Pow R Sac (03:38) 3 Will Serve (03:38) 4 Her (08:44) 5 Black Eyed Dog (03:34) 6 Amnesia (06:20) 7 Love of Life (08:33) 8 (----) (02:29) 9 Other Side of the World (03:58) 10 Rutting (01:52) 11 God Loves America (06:45) 12 Omnipotent (02:45) |
| Omniscience : Allmusic album Review : Beginning with the surging, sweeping crunch of "Mothers Milk," with some great Jarboe vocals over it all, Omniscience is a live album which benefits from the inclusion of some otherwise unrecorded or unreleased Swans tracks. Taken from dates on the 1992 Love of Life tour, the album showcases a newly solidified touring lineup of Gira, Jarboe, Steele, returning veteran Kizys, and Vincent Signorelli, drummer on the two previous albums. The sound is clear and sharp, a distinct change from the sometimes muddy official bootlegs of years past. Most of the familiar tracks are unsurprisingly from Love of Life, including "Her," "The Other Side of the World," and that albums title track in an extended take with a wholly new and incredibly dramatic instrumental coda. However, interesting choices like a version of Nick Drakes "Black Eyed Dog," originally done by Jarboe and Gira for the third Skin album, appear as well. "Will Serve" is a fantastic number appearing only here, starting with a delicate guitar intro and swiftly turning into a cinematic, soaring piece -- a lovely demonstration of Swans now at their newly inspiring best. "Amnesia" gets a particularly fierce take on the disc, with woodwind-like keyboards providing delicacy as the song rips along with further sonic touches like howling winds and breaking glass. Ending with a fine version of "God Bless America" and the new, slow-grinding "Omnipotent," Omniscience is yet another excellent addition to Swans body of work. As an extra note, illustrations by Deryk Thomas, cover artist for the two studio albums previous to this release, are included in the CD booklet; continuing the child/rabbit theme of those covers, the paintings here are at once shockingly, horrifyingly violent and perversely beautiful, as perfect a complement to the bands work as any over the years. | ||
 | Album: 17 of 41 Title: Greed / Holy Money Released: 1992 Tracks: 15 Duration: 1:18:00 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Time Is Money (Bastard) (06:20) 2 Money Is Flesh (04:56) 3 Another You (07:44) 4 Blackmail (04:42) 5 A Screw (Holy Money) (04:58) 6 Fool (05:50) 7 Stupid Child (05:17) 8 Anything for You (04:19) 9 Nobody (04:42) 10 A Screw (05:40) 11 Heaven (04:55) 12 Coward (05:06) 13 A Hanging (05:48) 14 You Need Me (01:22) 15 Greed (06:15) |
| Greed / Holy Money : Allmusic album Review : This re-release, from the original series of Swans reissues done in the early 1990s, is at once less and more than the title indicates, following the pattern established by the 1988 American release of the material by the Skin side project. Rather than being a straight collection of these two albums, in fact the disc also collects the A-sides from the "Time Is Money (Bastard)" and "A Screw" singles, along with the A Screw B-side "Blackmail," while subtracting the original version of "Fool" from Greed and the second version of "Money is Flesh" from Holy Money. To top it all off, the running order of all the tracks has been completely rearranged. Given that all the songs were essentially recorded at the same session and that the two albums were complementary releases, no noticeable difference in style from song to song is apparent. The sequencing works quite well in any event, and Giras choice of songs really cant be argued with, only leaving off as he does alternate takes of album tracks rather than wholly unique songs. Still, it can be a bit distracting to the hardcore fan or collector. Those simply interested in the excellent music wont be disappointed, but this release has since been fully superseded by the Cop/Young God/Greed/Holy Money re-release from 1999. | ||
 | Album: 18 of 41 Title: Kill the Child: 1985/1986/1987 Live Released: 1995 Tracks: 1 Duration: 1:02:25 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 Kill the Child (1:02:25) |
 | Album: 19 of 41 Title: The Great Annihilator Released: 1995 Tracks: 17 Duration: 1:13:51 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 In (02:27) 2 I Am the Sun (03:23) 3 She Lives! (07:00) 4 Celebrity Lifestyle (04:10) 5 Mother/Father (04:07) 6 Blood Promise (04:15) 7 Mind/Body/Light/Sound (04:52) 8 My Buried Child (02:58) 9 Warm (04:54) 10 Alcohol the Seed (03:29) 11 Killing for Company (06:55) 12 Mother’s Milk (02:26) 13 Where Does a Body End? (03:42) 14 Telepathy (06:11) 15 The Great Annihilator (04:53) 16 Out (02:13) 17 I Am the Sun (live) (05:47) |
| The Great Annihilator : Allmusic album Review : After a three-year break occasioned in part by wrangles with the Sky label, Swans returned in 1995 with a vengeance, as always pursuing their unique muse of dramatic, ever-more textured music. Gira and Jarboe work with a fantastic core band this time out, including returning veteran Westberg, who trades off guitar duties with Steele, at points playing together with him -- a magnificent combination. Other returning musicians include Kizys and Parsons, while newer players like drummer Bill Rieflin from the Chicago Wax Trax! circle join as well. As is par for the course by now, Swans seem incapable of producing a bad album, and Annihilator is crammed full of astonishing songs to prove it. Everythings a little more stripped-down here, possibly due to having a central band, but its still all very lushly arranged and created, perfectly balancing force and restraint. Lead-off single "Celebrity Lifestyle" is one of the catchiest things the band has ever done, but its still uniquely Swans -- a minimal, throbbing song matched with a sharp lyric on starlust and what it might mean. "I Am the Sun" pounds as hard as any early Swans track, but the use of careful space between blasts, Giras heavily echoed, out-of-nowhere vocal (accentuated by equally vivid background vocals from Jarboe), and tempo shifts clearly demonstrates the constantly evolving nature of Swans music; the band is never content to simply repeat the past. Jarboes own stand-out tracks include "Mother/Father," a brawling number showcasing both her and the band at their full-on best, and "My Buried Child," with her softly husked take on a terrifying Gira lyric, which is carried by a roiling rhythm. This is followed immediately by the sweeping, cinematic "Warm," where she contributes wordless vocals. Once again, Swans have created an epic, incredible work of art. | ||
 | Album: 20 of 41 Title: Die Tür ist zu Released: 1996 Tracks: 7 Duration: 53:57 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 Ligetis Breath / Hilflos Kind (21:35) 2 Ich sehe die Alle in einer Reihe (04:40) 3 Surrogate Drones (02:56) 4 YRP (08:39) 1 You Know Everything (reprise 1991) (04:26) 2 M/F (03:45) 3 Soundsection (07:56) |
 | Album: 21 of 41 Title: Real Love Released: 1996 Tracks: 6 Duration: 44:43 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Coward (06:09) 2 Stupid Child (07:08) 3 Anything for You (07:46) 4 Money Is Flesh (08:06) 5 A Hanging (08:08) 6 Sealed in Skin (07:23) |
| Real Love : Allmusic album Review : Compiled from a series of dates in Europe from February to April 1986 and originally released as a semi-official bootleg -- much like many of the other similar live recordings from 1985 to 1987 that have surfaced -- Real Love is comparatively shorter than the rest (only six songs long); while perhaps not as essential as either Public Castration or Feel Good Now, it still packs more punch than many another record by anyone else. The sound quality certainly isnt the best at many points, rendering what would be harrowing on a cleaner version more brusque and sometimes hollow sounding here as a result -- the opening track "Coward" might as well have been recorded through gauze. Song selection comes from the contemporaneous Greed and Holy Money releases, though one true rarity, "Sealed in Skin," the B-side for "Time is Money (Bastard)," surfaces here as well, with an even more dour feel to it than the studio take. "Stupid Child" comes off with a good sense of power thanks to a clear Gira vocal, which has a much sadder quaver than many of his other performances. "Money Is Flesh" stands out very well too; Gira sounds at his most brutish as the song relentlessly moves on. The band keeps up its now trademark stomp-and-death-rattle grind very well throughout -- the concluding drumming on "A Hanging" is noteworthy -- but sometimes things veer from mesmerizing to trudging, never the best of situations (sound quality fluctuations during the songs themselves certainly dont help matters any either). Ultimately, Real Love is of interest to Swans fanatics, but not to many others. | ||
 | Album: 22 of 41 Title: Soundtracks for the Blind Released: 1996-10-22 Tracks: 26 Duration: 2:21:49 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Red Velvet Corridor (03:04) 2 I Was a Prisoner in Your Skull (06:39) 3 Helpless Child (15:47) 4 Live Through Me (02:31) 5 Yum-Yab Killers (05:07) 6 The Beautiful Days (07:49) 7 Volcano (05:19) 8 Mellothumb (02:45) 9 All Lined Up (04:48) 10 Surrogate (01:51) 11 How They Suffer (05:52) 12 Animus (10:42) 1 Red Velvet Wound (02:02) 2 The Sound (13:11) 3 Her Mouth Is Filled With Honey (03:18) 4 Blood Section (02:39) 5 Hypogirl (02:44) 6 Minus Something (04:14) 7 Empathy (06:45) 8 I Love You This Much (07:23) 9 YRP (07:46) 10 Fan’s Lament (01:28) 11 Secret Friends (03:08) 12 The Final Sacrifice (10:27) 13 YRP 2 (02:09) 14 Surrogate Drone (02:09) |
| Soundtracks for the Blind : Allmusic album Review : Choosing to extinguish the band name under which Gira and Jarboe had worked together for so long must not have been an easy step, but when they decided to end Swans with one last studio release as a prelude to a farewell tour, they did so with what turned out to be their biggest and best album ever. Interestingly, the double-disc, two-and-a-half-hour long Soundtracks makes no pretensions at being a uniform creation like The White Album or Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness; Giras own notes indicate the song sources as being from "hand-held cassette recordings to found sounds, to samples, to loops, to finished multitrack recordings," recorded with ten different musicians. Everything from raging electric music in extreme to the gentlest of acoustic strums can be found here, ultimately being a perfect encapsulation of Swans sound -- as much as any greatest-hits anthology could ever have been. "The Helpless Child," the epic-length Gira-sung piece previewed on Die Tür ist Zu, amazingly gets an even more brilliant revision here, while another similarly lengthy track, "The Sound," at once roars and whispers over its length in a way that early Swans -- much less many other bands -- could never have done. Other tracks continue Swans then-recent practice of mixing random taped conversations with exquisitely arranged performances: "I Was a Prisoner in Your Skull" is especially noteworthy as the clear forerunner of Godspeed you Black Emperor!s entire musical approach. Jarboes own tracks are all winners, from the fractured, tempo-shifting techno of "Volcano" to the howling live version of a solo album track from Sacrificial Cake, "Yum-Yab Killers." Ending on the unexpected yet appropriate "Surrogate Drone," Soundtracks lets Swans bow out from recording on the highest note possible. | ||
 | Album: 23 of 41 Title: Children of God / World of Skin Released: 1997 Tracks: 28 Duration: 2:17:59 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 New Mind (05:13) 2 In My Garden (05:35) 3 Our Love Lies (04:33) 4 Sex, God, Sex (06:38) 5 Blood and Honey (04:47) 6 Like a Drug (Sha La La La) (05:33) 7 You’re Not Real, Girl (04:19) 8 Beautiful Child (04:54) 9 Blackmail (03:31) 10 Trust Me (05:00) 11 Real Love (06:22) 12 Blind Love (07:46) 13 Children of God (04:21) 14 I’ll Swallow You (04:16) 1 1,000 Years (04:01) 2 Everything at Once (04:22) 3 Breathing Water (04:22) 4 Blood on Your Hands (03:52) 5 Nothing Without You (05:43) 6 We’ll Fall Apart (04:42) 7 My Own Hands (04:38) 8 Turn to Stone (05:20) 9 Cold Bed (02:24) 10 24 Hours (04:13) 11 Red Rose (04:29) 12 One Small Sacrifice (06:42) 13 Still a Child (05:22) 14 The Center of Your Heart (04:47) |
| Children of God / World of Skin : Allmusic album Review : This re-release, fully remastered by Gira, was especially crucial for Swans fan base, since Children had long fallen out of print worldwide, with often-times absurd prices being asked for by sellers lucky enough to have a few remaining. The package collects that album along with the contents of the American-only compilation of the first two Skin albums by Gira and Jarboe. This means that two tracks from the first Skin album, "Come Out" and "The Man I Love," still have not been re-released. Only the one new track "Ill Swallow You" surfaces here, originally appearing on the B-side of the "New Mind" single. Starting with a slow arrangement and low Gira vocal, the song then shifts to a shouting chorus of voices before becoming a quick, drum-heavy track with a lead Jarboe vocal instead. Its a unique, interesting bonus for those completists who already have the original discs that make up this collection. | ||
 | Album: 24 of 41 Title: Swans Are Dead Released: 1998-01-20 Tracks: 16 Duration: 2:23:01 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Feel Happiness (16:57) 2 Low Life Form (04:54) 3 Not Alone (13:12) 4 Blood on Yr Hands (02:59) 5 Hypogirl (03:22) 6 I Crawled (10:04) 7 I Am the Sun (05:26) 8 Blood Promise (15:23) 1 Final Sac (08:43) 2 The Sound (12:51) 3 I See Them All Lined Up (06:26) 4 Lavender (08:02) 5 Yr Prp (08:51) 6 Yum Yab (04:36) 7 Helpless Child (17:44) 8 M/F (03:24) |
 | Album: 25 of 41 Title: Various Failures 1988-1992 Released: 1999 Tracks: 34 Duration: 2:34:03 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Miracle of Love (06:26) 2 Black Eyed Dog (03:57) 3 The Golden Boy That Was Swallowed by the Sea (05:09) 4 (-) (02:07) 5 I Remember Who You Are (04:23) 6 Her (05:24) 7 No Cruel Angel (04:26) 8 When She Breathes (04:31) 9 Why Are We Alive? (06:04) 10 The Child’s Right (03:36) 11 (-) (01:03) 12 The Other Side of the World (04:39) 13 Song for Dead Time (MG version) (04:34) 14 Love Will Save You (06:06) 15 Blind (04:31) 16 Unfortunate Lie (02:17) 17 Was He Ever Alive? (06:26) 1 Failure (06:20) 2 Identity (05:35) 3 Can’t Find My Way Home (04:48) 4 Trust Me (04:18) 5 Better Than You (05:58) 6 Love Will Tear Us Apart (J. version) (03:43) 7 Will We Survive? (05:58) 8 Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes (01:17) 9 God Damn the Sun (04:20) 10 Eyes of Nature (04:40) 11 You Know Everything (04:25) 12 Song for Dead Time (J. version) (04:58) 13 Picture of Maryanne (04:23) 14 Amnesia (03:42) 15 Dream Dream (05:32) 16 Please Remember Me (04:48) 17 New Mind (acoustic) (03:25) |
| Various Failures 1988-1992 : Allmusic album Review : Given the label troubles which rendered much of Swans late-80s/early-90s work out-of-print all too quickly -- Giras comments on MCA and Sky Records since that period have never been less than utterly scathing -- this particular entry in the late-90s reissue series was one of the most eagerly awaited releases by fans, though not without controversy. Rather than completely reissuing everything -- Burning World, White Light, Love of Life, the World of Skin album Ten Songs From Another World, plus numerous singles and the live Omniscience -- Gira compiled and fully remastered a broad-ranging (and as has often been the case with these reissues, non-chronologically ordered), two-disc distillation of what he considered to be the best moments of the period. (In many cases he selected alternate or unreleased takes, some notably better than the more familiar versions, as with Burning Worlds "God Damn the Sun," one of only two tracks taken from that troubled album; Omniscience itself is not featured at all on this collection.) There was some griping from Swans fan base over this, but the fact is Giras instincts were spot on; Failures pulls together all of the fantastic, often unappreciated highs from these years, resulting in something arguably better than all of the original releases put together. The bands spectral, mysterious, folk-influenced side (such as "Failure" and the World of Skins take on Nick Drakes "Black-Eyed Dog") and the epic, film soundtrack-sounding side ("Better Than You," "The Golden Boy...") are both featured in full force, as are the many side explorations and combinations of the same. As a further welcome bonus, just about every B-side from the singles of those years appears here, including such wonders as Giras take on "Song for Dead Time" and the acoustic version of "New Mind," along with Jarboes truly fascinating take on "Love Will Tear Us Apart." | ||
 | Album: 26 of 41 Title: Cop / Young God / Greed / Holy Money Released: 1999-03-23 Tracks: 29 Duration: 2:34:45 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Half Life (04:18) 2 Job (04:45) 3 Why Hide (05:50) 4 Clay Man (05:05) 5 Your Property (04:46) 6 Cop (06:47) 7 Butcher (04:01) 8 Thug (05:10) 9 I Crawled (05:40) 10 Raping a Slave (06:20) 11 Young God (07:03) 12 This Is Mine (05:25) 13 Sealed in Skin (06:08) 14 Fool (05:21) 1 Time Is Money (Bastard) (06:20) 2 Money Is Flesh (04:56) 3 Another You (07:44) 4 Blackmail (04:42) 5 A Screw (Holy Money) (04:58) 6 Fool (#2) (05:50) 7 Stupid Child (05:17) 8 Anything for You (04:19) 9 Nobody (04:42) 10 A Screw (05:40) 11 Heaven (04:55) 12 Coward (05:06) 13 A Hanging (05:48) 14 You Need Me (01:22) 15 Greed (06:15) |
| Cop / Young God / Greed / Holy Money : Allmusic album Review : If theres music in hell, this is what it sounds like. Its conceivable that some band, somewhere, is making music heavier, darker, and just generally less fun than this, but if you find one, ask who one of their greatest influences is and theyll probably refer you to the Swans. Led by the cavern-voiced "singer" and songwriter Michael Gira, the Swans bludgeoned and mauled their way through 13 (an appropriate number) years of slow, grinding mayhem before calling it quits (for the first time) in 1996. This two-disc set reissues three early LPs and one EP in one convenient brown and black package that includes sketchy musician credits, contact information, and the complete lyrics to all songs (as a sample, heres the entirety of "Nobody": "I mean nothing to myself/I hate my body/Im stuck in myself/Im nothing/Im nobody/Glory! Glory! Glory! Glory!"). The mood never alters and the painful gloom never lifts. But sometimes thats just what the doctor ordered. | ||
 | Album: 27 of 41 Title: Filth / Body to Body, Job to Job Released: 2000 Tracks: 27 Duration: 2:14:26 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Stay Here (05:36) 2 Big Strong Boss (03:02) 3 Blackout (03:46) 4 Power for Power (05:53) 5 Freak (01:13) 6 Right Wrong (04:42) 7 Thank You (03:52) 8 Weakling (05:20) 9 Gang (03:19) 10 Live at the Kitchen, N.Y.C. 1982/3: Strip/Burn / Heatsheet / Blackout / Clay Man / Stay Here / Weakling (24:18) 1 I’ll Cry for You (05:41) 2 Red Sheet (03:11) 3 Loop 33 (00:59) 4 Your Game (03:57) 5 Seal It Over (03:48) 6 Whore (03:56) 7 We’ll Hang for That (03:55) 8 Half Life (03:57) 9 Loop 21 (01:26) 10 Get Out (03:31) 11 Job (05:40) 12 Loop 1 (01:01) 13 Mother, My Body Disgusts Me (04:53) 14 Cop (05:56) 15 Only I Can Hear, Only I Can Touch (02:41) 16 Thug (09:44) 17 Raping a Slave (live) (09:02) |
| Filth / Body to Body, Job to Job : Allmusic album Review : From the center of New Yorks celebrated downtown music scene emerged a most ugly ducking, the Swans. With a sound like a ditch witch stuck in a tar pit, in 1982 the Swans were the height of noise. Musically, it would be termed proto-industrial, proto-noise rock, but aesthetically it was a sound shot through the axes of power. Strung between the poles of domination and submission, the Swans created a music with a sexually dark, malefic vision of society as despotic and individuals as subjugated to the point of dissolution. This double album, part of a planned series of reissues, captures the Swans at the beginning of their career. The first CD contains their earliest album, Filth, along with a previously unreleased live performance at the Kitchen. Its a classic album and, even though the quality isnt great, sounds more uncompromising live. The second consists of unreleased studio tracks, tape experiments, and live recordings from 1982 through 1985, providing an interesting balance to the "finished" compositions of Filth. It shows Michael Gira et al. testing the limits of their sound, exploring new directions, and laying the groundwork for future albums. Releasing them together makes a point about the experimental quality of the Swans work. If that isnt enough to make you buy it, theres always the slick and expensive embossed packaging. | ||
 | Album: 28 of 41 Title: Forever Burned Released: 2003 Tracks: 17 Duration: 1:12:13 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 The River That Runs With Love Won’t Run Dry (04:14) 2 Let It Come Down (04:28) 3 Can’t Find My Way Home (04:48) 4 Mona Lisa, Mother Earth (04:16) 5 (She’s a) Universal Emptiness (04:02) 6 Saved (04:11) 7 I Remember Who You Are (04:23) 8 Jane Mary, Cry One Tear (03:51) 9 See No More (05:30) 10 God Damn the Sun (04:20) 11 The Sound of Freedom (04:34) 12 No Cure for the Lonely (02:56) 13 Love of Life (03:41) 14 God Loves America (03:43) 15 Power and Sacrifice (05:01) 16 Song for the Sun (04:28) 17 Love Will Tear Us Apart (03:41) |
 | Album: 29 of 41 Title: My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky Released: 2010-09-21 Tracks: 8 Duration: 44:26 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 No Words / No Thoughts (09:25) 2 Reeling the Liars In (02:20) 3 Jim (06:46) 4 My Birth (03:53) 5 You Fucking People Make Me Sick (05:09) 6 Inside Madeline (06:37) 7 Eden Prison (06:03) 8 Little Mouth (04:13) |
| My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky : Allmusic album Review : After Michael Gira disbanded the brutal, beautiful Swans in 1997, he did anything but go quietly into the mists of avant rock legend. He ran his label Young God, wrote and published fiction, formed and cut half a dozen albums with Angels of Light, and produced and released recordings by numerous acts, including the first offerings by Devendra Banhart. Gira reconvened the Swans project for My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky, eight songs that pick up in part where 1997s Soundtracks for the Blind left off, while remaining firmly in the present with the influence of Angels of Light and his solo records in the mix. This edition of Swans contains various former members, including guitarists Norman Westberg and Christoph Hahn, drummers Phil Puleo (who played with Swans and Angels of Light) and Thor Harris (ex of the Angels), and bassist Chris Pravdica. Guests include Banhart, Bill Rieflin (who also guested with a previous edition of Swans), and Mercury Revs Grasshopper. The chimes that introduce the nine-and-a-half-minute opener, "No Words/No Thoughts," give way to martial, massive no wave guitars and pummeling kick drums and tom-toms. Gira begins his powerfully incantatory roar as the track shapes and twists, rumbling and thundering. Likewise, "My Birth" contains Swans hypnotic, punishing -- if more refined -- repetition with a sawing dulcimer added in the high end for more tension. Giras lyrics are still concerned with the extremities of human experience as they encounter the blind light of the divine and the bottomless heart of darkness. There is great power in this music; it points at the margins of violence, but never quite gets there ("Eden Prison," with Giras vocals amid a swirling mass of in-the-red instrumentation and tribal drumming, is a solid example). "Jim" is the dead cross where late-era Swans and Angels of Light intersect. There are other places here, such as "Reeling the Liars In," where Gira performs solo on acoustic guitar, or on the closer "Little Mouth," where the meld of acoustic and electric instruments as well as chant-like multi-voice choruses create an even wider depth of field. In classic Swans confrontational mode, "You Fucking People Make Me Sick" features Banhart and Giras young daughter singing "I love you/Young flower/Now give me/What is mine” to one another tenderly, before industrial sounds, textures, and hammering percussion rain down on the listener; its jarring, disturbing. All this serves to underscore that My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky is a mercilessly intense and beautiful record that only Swans could pull off, and that no matter who plays in the band, Gira was and is Swans: their sound, their musical and poetic vision, their heartbeat. | ||
 | Album: 30 of 41 Title: We Rose From Your Bed With the Sun in Our Head Released: 2012-02-02 Tracks: 9 Duration: 2:02:30 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 [intro] / No Words / No Thoughts (23:21) 2 Jim (08:16) 3 Beautiful Child (08:39) 4 The Apostate (16:53) 5 Yr Property (07:13) 6 Sex God Sex (08:05) 1 The Seer (intro) / I Crawled (30:46) 2 Eden Prison (11:57) 3 93 Ave. B Blues / Little Mouth… (07:18) |
| We Rose From Your Bed With the Sun in Our Head : Allmusic album Review : Ever since they began pummeling the public in the early 80s with their extremely loud shows -- like 70s the Who or My Bloody Valentine-sized loud -- the Swans have been on adventurous souls "youve got to see them" lists, and while the volume was pulled back over the years, it was replaced by naked emotion plus a band that acted as a united front, led by that ragged, poetic, tortured, and unpredictable soul, Michael Gira. Here, on this 2012 double live album, theyre back after a long hiatus and reunited in an altered form with quite a bit of the Angels of Light -- Giras other big project -- bleeding through, although the holler-and-drone, build-and-explode spirit is Swans to the core. Opening with an epic version of "No Words No Thoughts" from 2011s My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky, it becomes obvious that the material will be given the chance to breathe in concert, as the once ten-minute track balloons to more than twice its studio size. It requires patience, but its a powerful, emotional ride where nothing is sacrificed, seeming like an aimless dirge at first before every bit becomes a heart-stopping payoff. Same goes for the half-hour piece with "I Crawled" at its center, but this 1984 Swans favorite is given new meaning here, emerging out of "The Seer," one of the two new songs included in the set list. The performances are spot-on as the band lurches forward in unison or creates dour, flowing soundscapes that dont meander but sprawl, and the method of delivery is wonderful, with the recording quality in stark contrast to early Swans live albums, here offering warm, present, and crisp sounds that will challenge speakers to do their best. In the end, it is a live album, an arguable sideline release from the band, and one that requires quite a bit of willingness from the listener, but it supports the legacy, offering solid evidence that the rich and rewarding Swans are more concerned with being vital than approachable. | ||
 | Album: 31 of 41 Title: The Seer Released: 2012-08-12 Tracks: 11 Duration: 1:59:13 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Lunacy (06:08) 2 Mother of the World (09:57) 3 The Wolf (01:35) 4 The Seer (32:14) 5 The Seer Returns (06:17) 6 93 Ave. B Blues (05:21) 7 The Daughter Brings the Water (02:40) 1 Song for a Warrior (03:58) 2 Avatar (08:51) 3 A Piece of the Sky (19:10) 4 The Apostate (23:01) |
| The Seer : Allmusic album Review : Michael Gira claims that Swans The Seer took 30 years to make: "its the culmination of every previous Swans album as well as any other music Ive ever made, been involved in or imagined." This is not hyperbole. Two years after My Father Will Lead Me Up to a Rope to the Sky, The Seer is the most sprawling, ambitious, thoughtfully conceived and tightly performed recording in the bands catalog -- also not hyperbole -- over two discs, two hours, and 11 tracks. And it is not an endurance test, but an argument for compulsive listening. Its an exquisitely wrought journey through post-rock, electronic soundscapes, haunting acoustic songs, punishing noise, and (lots of) percussion. While the extremes of Filth are rare here, their roots are clearly present, as is everything else, from Cop to White Light from the Mouth of Infinity to Soundtracks for the Blind to Angels of Light. The previous musical incarnations of Swans have been honed to sharpened points, carving new musical and sonic terrain from rock into an intensely focused whole. "Lunacy" opens it with tight, seamless repetition and builds to shattering crescendo as a prolonged introduction, before chanted vocals (Alan and Mimi from Low guest) enter. They eventually give way to open-ended, restrained instrumental explorations, creating a suite-like construction in just over six minutes. The 32-minute title cut uses every tool in the Swans arsenal like a hammer, from nearly maddening repetition and clattering dissonance to nuanced space; dynamics to multivalent, layered electronic textures. Its coda, the six-minute "The Seer Returns," features tribal, shuffling floor toms and bass drums. Former member Jarboe appears on the 19-minute "Piece of the Sky." After a long intro that includes field recordings and industrial noise, her hovering voice is multitracked in a wide-open, blissed-out drone before thundering post-rock and experimental drones eventually find Gira (with Jarboe backing) singing what may be the story of their partnership. Karen O from Yeah Yeah Yeahs, sings "Song for a Warrior," a gorgeous number that commences as a country waltz before opening onto a shimmering, nearly opulent instrumental terrain before gradually stripping its way back to even starker sonic folk terrain. Its Gira speaking through that feminine voice, offering his own statement of purpose and accepting its cost. Set closer, the 23-minute "Apostate," is Swans at their most punishing. Given its length, it takes its time getting there, but when the chaos and world-shaking begin, the band leans full-on into the abyss to deliver a nearly frightening conclusion; Gira employs the full range of his powerful voice in the heart of the maelstrom before a stampede of drums pushes the track out onto other side of oblivion. The Seer is unquestionably a work of ecstatic beauty; it encompasses everything because it is everything. It references the aesthetic developed by Swans, and moves it past current musical boundaries and onto a new sonic frontier, where they stand, as they have always stood, alone. | ||
 | Album: 32 of 41 Title: Not Here / Not Now Released: 2013-10-14 Tracks: 9 Duration: 1:59:32 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 To Be Kind (16:53) 2 Just a Little Boy (10:03) 3 Coward (07:23) 4 She Loves Us! (15:14) 5 Oxygen (07:20) 1 The Seer / Bring the Sun / Toussaint l’ouverture (44:31) 2 Nathalie Neal (07:54) 3 Kirstin Supine (05:18) 4 Screen Shot (04:53) |
 | Album: 33 of 41 Title: To Be Kind Released: 2014-05-09 Tracks: 10 Duration: 2:01:16 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Screen Shot (08:04) 2 Just a Little Boy (For Chester Burnett) (12:39) 3 A Little God in My Hands (07:08) 4 Bring the Sun / Toussaint l’ouverture (34:05) 5 Some Things We Do (05:09) 1 She Loves Us (17:00) 2 Kirsten Supine (10:32) 3 Oxygen (07:59) 4 Nathalie Neal (10:14) 5 To Be Kind (08:22) |
| To Be Kind : Allmusic album Review : Let no one say Michael Gira doesnt have something to say and the will to say it: 2014s To Be Kind is the third album from the Swans since he reassembled the band in 2010, and its his second album in a row that spans two discs and runs over two hours. Gira likes to work on a large musical canvas, and he gives himself all the room he needs on To Be Kind -- "Bring the Sun/Toussaint LOuverture" alone is the length of an ordinary album at a shade over 34 minutes. Giras vision is a bit less dark in the 21st century than it was during the Swans first run in the 80s and 90s, with fewer lyrical images of rage and torment, but hes no less intense as he barks and howls his lyrics of life in a fallen world, and his music is every bit as physically powerful and challenging. As is the Swans custom, the pieces on To Be Kind are built around repetitive rhythm patterns, with dynamics taking them from an ominous whisper to an unholy roar and back again, and the sheer physical impact of this music (and the stamina that must have been required to perform it) is remarkable, especially on the four cuts besides "Bring the Sun" that crack the ten-minute mark. Giras music is minimalist at its core, but its never simple or without imagination, and the waves of furious noise, found audio, and percussive hail are orchestrated with the exacting vision of a man who takes that vision very seriously. Giras accompanists on To Be Kind include longtime guitarists Norman Westberg and Christoph Hahn, as well as bassist Christopher Pravdica and percussionists Phil Puleo, Thor Harris, and Bill Rieflin, and when they come together they sound like some sort of orchestra, huge, passionate, and crammed with sonic detail. And the closing numbers on each disc -- "Some Things We Do" and "To Be Kind" -- try to offer a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel, as some vague signs of warmth and caring bubble up from the bottom of the black sea. The world of the Swans is a place where joy doesnt visit very often, but its not as monochromatic as one might imagine, and the craft and vision behind this music is often stunning; Michael Gira is a man unafraid to follow his muse wherever it may take him, and To Be Kind is another example of his singular vision writ large without compromise. | ||
 | Album: 34 of 41 Title: Oxygen Released: 2014-11-24 Tracks: 4 Duration: 20:02 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 Oxygen (edit) (03:04) 2 Oxygen (live at Primavera) (06:49) 3 Oxygen (early version) (04:24) 4 Oxygen (acoustic version) (05:45) |
 | Album: 35 of 41 Title: The Gate Released: 2015-10-01 Tracks: 11 Duration: 2:28:08 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 Frankie M. (29:25) 2 A Little God in My Hands (13:13) 3 Apost / Cloud of Unforming (33:41) 1 Just a Little Boy (16:40) 2 Cloud of Forgetting (11:33) 3 Bring the Sun / Black-Eyed Man (28:16) 4 When Will I Return? (demo) (02:57) 5 New Rhythm Thing (demo) (01:58) 6 People Like Us (demo) (03:53) 7 Red Rhythm Thing (demo) (03:04) 8 Finally, Peace (demo) (03:25) |
 | Album: 36 of 41 Title: Holy Money / A Screw Released: 2015-11-20 Tracks: 10 Duration: 51:28 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 A Hanging (05:48) 2 You Need Me (01:22) 3 Fool (#2) (05:50) 4 A Screw (Holy Money) (04:58) 5 Another You (07:44) 6 Money Is Flesh (#2) (05:02) 7 Coward (05:06) 8 A Screw (Holy Money) (mix) (05:41) 9 A Screw (Holy Money) (mix, no lead vocal) (05:00) 10 Blackmail (04:54) |
 | Album: 37 of 41 Title: White Light From the Mouth of Infinity / Love of Life Released: 2015-12-04 Tracks: 48 Duration: 3:26:16 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Better Than You (05:51) 2 Power and Sacrifice (05:37) 3 You Know Nothing (05:46) 4 Song for Dead Time (04:58) 5 Will We Survive (05:59) 6 Love Will Save You (06:06) 7 Failure (06:20) 8 Song for the Sun (05:03) 9 Miracle of Love (06:43) 10 Blind (04:31) 11 When She Breathes (04:31) 12 Why Are We Alive? (06:00) 13 The Most Unfortunate Lie (05:02) 1 (—) (00:16) 2 Love of Life (03:41) 3 The Golden Boy That Was Swallowed by the Sea (04:31) 4 (—) (00:37) 5 (—) (02:06) 6 The Other Side of the World (04:39) 7 Her (05:24) 8 The Sound of Freedom (04:34) 9 (—) (00:34) 10 Amnesia (04:19) 11 Identity (04:30) 12 (—) (01:02) 13 In the Eyes of Nature (04:41) 14 She Crys (For Spider) (04:57) 15 God Loves America (03:43) 16 (—) (01:19) 17 No Cure for the Lonely (02:56) 1 Amnesia (long) (07:42) 2 Song for Dead Time (MG version) (04:34) 3 You Know Everything (04:25) 4 Mother’s Milk (04:36) 5 The Childs Right (03:33) 6 Love of Life (short) (03:22) 7 Unfortunate Lie (02:17) 8 No Cruel Angel (04:28) 9 Black Eyed Dog (03:48) 10 Love of Life (long) (06:14) 11 Picture of Mary Anne (04:21) 12 Amnesia (06:20) 13 Dream Dream (05:36) 14 Please Remember Me (04:37) 15 Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes (01:17) 16 The Unknown (06:45) 17 Blood on Your Hands (03:11) 18 A Girl in Need (02:34) |
 | Album: 38 of 41 Title: The Glowing Man Released: 2016-06-17 Tracks: 8 Duration: 1:58:26 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Cloud of Forgetting (12:43) 2 Cloud of Unknowing (25:12) 3 The World Looks Red / The World Looks Black (14:27) 4 People Like Us (04:32) 1 Frankie M (20:58) 2 When Will I Return? (05:26) 3 The Glowing Man (28:50) 4 Finally, Peace (06:15) |
| The Glowing Man : Allmusic album Review : Following the unprecedented critical and commercial success of Swans double-album masterworks The Seer and To Be Kind -- the latter of which reached the Top 40 of both the U.S. and U.K. album charts -- Michael Gira announced that the existing iteration of the band would only produce one more album and tour. The Glowing Man, as with its predecessors, is a sprawling two-hour epic containing lengthy compositions that the band developed during their momentous tours (and documented their progress on limited double-CDs released on their website in order to raise funds for the proper albums). The Glowing Man contains fewer tracks than the groups previous albums (only eight this time around), and most of them are well over ten minutes each. This looks daunting on paper, but it doesnt seem indulgent at all to anyone who has witnessed the groups performances, which are moving experiences for the musicians and audience members alike. Gira is less a songwriter than a summoner, channeling unspeakable amounts of energy into ritualistic spectacles. Many of the songs start out with tension-building drones, often utilizing lots of percussion (and Okkyung Lees furious cello freakery on "Cloud of Unknowing") before ebbing and flowing with intense bursts, and eventually reaching ecstatic, trance-inducing states. Other pieces have more constant rhythms, starting out slow and calm and building hypnotically before freeing themselves and floating in space. With lyrics concerning hard drugs ("Frankie M") and abusive relationships ("When Will I Return," sung by Michaels wife Jennifer Gira), The Glowing Man seems sadder, gloomier, and more disturbing than the more hopeful To Be Kind, but the band have always embraced many positive and negative elements in their work, and they all add up to an extremely powerful expression of nearly every human emotion. Unlike the album which ended the previous incarnation of Swans, the collage-like Soundtracks for the Blind, The Glowing Man isnt a bold excursion into unknown territory compared to the groups previous works. That isnt to say that it feels like a formulaic retread, however. Especially considering how all three albums longest (and best) pieces evolved from each other through touring and rehearsals, it seems best to view the groups post-2010 run as one extended ever-evolving work, and this is just the intended conclusion of that. Theres no way this type of boundless energy can simply be retired or silenced, though, so the album serves as another exhilarating portal into the unknown. | ||
 | Album: 39 of 41 Title: The Great Annihilator / Drainland Released: 2017-04-28 Tracks: 27 Duration: 1:59:51 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 In (02:27) 2 I Am the Sun (03:23) 3 She Lives! (07:00) 4 Celebrity Lifestyle (04:10) 5 Mother/Father (04:07) 6 Blood Promise (04:15) 7 Mind/Body/Light/Sound (04:52) 8 My Buried Child (02:58) 9 Warm (04:54) 10 Alcohol the Seed (03:29) 11 Killing for Company (06:55) 12 Mother’s Milk (02:26) 13 Where Does a Body End? (03:42) 14 Telepathy (06:11) 15 The Great Annihilator (04:53) 16 Out (02:13) 17 I Am the Sun (live) (05:47) 1 You See Through Me (05:41) 2 Where Does Your Body Begin? (03:04) 3 I See Them All Lined Up (04:12) 4 Unreal (04:42) 5 Fan Letter (07:01) 6 Your Naked Body (02:30) 7 Low Life Form (03:40) 8 If You... (04:41) 9 Why I Ate My Wife (05:52) 10 Blind (04:32) |
 | Album: 40 of 41 Title: Deliquescence Released: 2017-05-17 Tracks: 7 Duration: 2:35:06 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 The Knot (45:37) 2 Screen Shot (07:50) 3 Cloud of Forgetting (16:01) 4 Deliquescing (10:09) 1 Cloud of Unknowing (29:22) 2 The Man Who Refused to Be Unhappy (09:44) 3 The Glowing Man (36:20) |
 | Album: 41 of 41 Title: What Is This? Released: 2019-03 Tracks: 10 Duration: 1:07:45 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 Leaving Meaning (06:32) 2 The Hanging Man (10:02) 3 Amnesia (06:10) 4 The Nub (05:49) 5 Cathedrals of Heaven (06:20) 6 Sunfucker (06:29) 7 What Is This? (05:20) 8 My Phantom Limb (11:24) 9 Annaline (03:50) 10 It’s Coming and It’s Real (05:49) |