SWANS + related projects

[Kunstmord]

Must... not... listen
I checked out, like, 5 seconds from each track. Felt ashamed afterwards and had to order the 2CD+DVD edition to compensate.
From what I've heard, it sounds enormous. Powerful. It's probably a GREAT album, and will be in my top-albums-of-all-time list, but I have this suspicion it won't top the Seer for me. It's different, and I heard "The Seer" at a very special time in my life, so there's that.
The noisier snippets I've heard remind me of the early stuff (not musically, but the energy).

[Piko]

Somehow, I managed to not hear The Seer until its actual release date, which I don't do much of anymore. Glad I did. So, I'm going to try and hold out until the release date.

[Kunstmord]

The first album I heard by Swans was The Seer, after it had already come out. September the 3rd, 2012. I remember reading about it here on ETS (I think), and thought "I should check this band out". So I went on youtube, and found "The Seer" (the song) and thought "Oh, 30 minutes, that's a short album". A few minutes in I checked Wikipedia, realised that it's just ONE song, and thought I should check them out immediately. One of those rare moments when my view of music changed entirely.
I couldn't get into Cop/Young God/Greed/Holy Money for another year or so.

[Piko]

I can't get into the older albums. Tried listening to Filth a few days ago. Did nothing for me. I can see obvious influences that they had on Godflesh and other bands, but it really did nothing for me. And no matter what people may say, I absolutely love the White Light album. Why Gira hates it is beyond me. It's a great album.

Think I'm finally "understanding" Soundtracks for the Blind though. At first, I found it boring. Now, not so much. More to it than I had originally given credit.

[Kunstmord]

Still haven't heard Soundtracks for the Blind. Plan on doing so soon, though.
I don't get all the love for Children of God, though - I honestly dislike half of the tracks on there, and the only real stand-out song I love is "Blind Love".

When Gira played "God Damn the Sun" live at his acoustic show a few weeks ago, it was an amazing experience, but the album version is, um, not so hot. The lyrics are great, but the way he sings them, the amount of reverb on his voice, the strings... Blergh. So I guess "goth"-era Swans are not my cup of tea.

The post-Filth pre-Children of God stuff is brilliant, though. But requires preparation and a certain state of mind to withstand the pummelling onslaught.

But anyway, IMO, post-reunion Swans > pre-reunion Swans.

[Piko]

Children of God is great. You don't like Beautiful Child? Possibly my favorite song from the band. Pre-Children of God stuff just doesn't so it for me. Not that it's too much. I found a majority of that stuff underwhelming. Time is Money ain't too shabby though.

But, I can agree on enjoying new Swans over the old.

[Kunstmord]

Children of God is great. You don't like Beautiful Child? Possibly my favorite song from the band.

The only tracks I enjoy are "New Mind", "Sex God Sex", "Real Love" and "Blind Love". The title track is OK. The version of "Blackmail" is good, too, but I actually don't like it's "intimate" sound. The original is so hauntingly beautiful, and the way it stops and "A Screw" kicks in is just wonderful.

[eversonpoe]

To Be Kind now available for pre-order

Young God Records is delighted to announce the release of a new album, To Be Kind, out on May 13, 2014. The album will be released on Young God Records (North America) and Mute in the rest of the world.Pre order your copy now A NOTE FROM MICHAEL GIRA: Hello There,We (Swans) have recently completed our new album. It is called To Be Kind. The release date is set for May 13, 2014. It will be available as a triple vinyl album, a double CD, and a 2XCD Deluxe Edition that will include a live DVD. It will also be available digitally.

more in the link.

[BRoswell]

[reseen_lamenti]

Oxygen just named BNT by P4K
http://pitchfork.com/reviews/tracks/16866-oxygen

Considering A Little God In My Hands was also BNT, are you guys ready for 10/10 BNM AOTY?

[richardp]

Won't be a 10/10.
Callin' it now. It will be a 9.1

[xmd 5a]

HOLY FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK! Track of '14 thus far, hands down.

[eversonpoe]

HOLY FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK! Track of '13 thus far, hands down.

it's, uh...2014 ;p

[blackholesun]

West Coast Dates Added. The Independent is pretty damn small. Surprised they are playing there. Might be a bitch to get tickets.

09/02 – Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theater
09/04 – Seattle, WA @ Showbox
09/05 – Vancouver, BA @ The Venue
09/06 – Portland, OR @ Roseland Theater
09/08 – San Francisco, CA @ Independent
09/11 – Hollywood, CA @ The Roxy Theatre

[xmd 5a]

Partway through my first proper listen of To Be Kind now. My jaw actually dropped on 3 separate occasions during "Bring the Sun" alone. This is really something.

[Kunstmord]

In case you didn't catch it, an official trailer for the album has been released:

Still haven't listened to the leak.
Can't wait for the album and DVD. I'm Just a Little Boy sounds like it's going to be awesome (and very different to the live version).

[reseen_lamenti]

Still haven't listened to the leak.

Ditto. It's especially difficult with so many 320 fakes/transcodes lying around.

[xmd 5a]

It's on Spotify. I figured if I'm going to listen to it prior to receiving my copy officially I may as well do so in a way from which M.Gira and co get an extra couple of hundredths of a cent...

[Kunstmord]

It's on Spotify. I figured if I'm going to listen to it prior to receiving my copy officially I may as well do so in a way from which M.Gira and co get an extra couple of hundredths of a cent...

Really? Damn, no Spotify here in Russia. What quality are the tracks that are on Spotify? I might listen if a proper non-transcode leak surfaces, I bought the physical 2CD+DVD edition already anyway.

[3:15]

Full stream on NPR.

[Kunstmord]

So, I listened to the stream today.
What a disappointment (for me, at least). Here's a small track-by-track:
Screen Shot: starts off interestingly, but turns out to be the same melody with very little variation, simple lyrics and the ending feels 'tacked on' – no smooth transition or anything.
Just a Little Boy: again, this is just the same riff, with some random guitar noises and odd canned laughter, pretty much non-existent vocal track. 12 minutes of going nowhere. The live version was so evil, energetic and powerful, and this is just a long ball-less blues jam.
A Little God In My Hands: finally, a good track. A bit poppy, but the groove is very sexy, and the synth noise section is awesome.
Bring the Sun/Touissant L'Ouverture: At least this track is epic, great and all kinds of very good. The buildups, the transition, the slow groove.
Some Things We Do: I expected something different, but this is a great song. Very haunting.
She Loves Us!: again, a long intro with no nuances, no changes in dynamics, then an improv noise section (which sounds boring – I hate this kind of stuff on records, it might have been for the musicians to play, but it rarely is fun to listen to), then the main part of the song. And no real buildup, just a rolling repetitive riff and Gira half-shouting something. The live version was pure chaos, and the studio version is a song that never even comes close to chaos, never feels angry. There are some random guitar parts closer to the end, which only distracted me, and felt like an afterthought.
Kirsten Supine: a beautiful song. The percussion is interesting, the outro section is really mournful-sounding.
Oxygen: I never liked the song to begin with (except the acoustic version), and the studio version has some weird double-tracked vocals, reverbed and delay-ed vocals which makes it worse than the live version (imo), but the brass section after the mid-song pause is kinda cool. All in all, I guess it's OK.
Nathalie Neal: same as She Loves Us! - a powerful live version turned into the same parts with no variation, no real force behind it. The intro is completely pointless, since it just fades out into the song and feels completely out-of-place.
To Be Kind: OK, but noticeably faster than the live version, and has those double-tracked Gira vocals which I don't enjoy. The "there are millions and millions of stars" line can be heard quite well (unlike the Not Here/Not Now version). I liked it better when it was barely audible.

What I enjoyed about the (post-reunion) Swans were the dynamics, the unusual instrumentation, the tremendous buildups, the lyrics (even if the lyrics were simple, the energy behind them made that irrelevant – The Apostate, for example). To Be Kind is not exactly dynamic, the section have little to no nuances (random guitar notes and drum hits don't count; I'm talking like the layering on Mother of the World), no interplay between the drummers (which I miss), the lyrics are OK at best, and Gira seems not to put any energy into them (except on Bring the Sun), and most of the songs just kind of plod along, never reaching the chaos/power of their live versions. Listening to Just a Little Boy, Nathalie Neal, She Loves Us! on Not Here/Not Now made me physically exhausted.

Sorry for the long post, just had to organise my thoughts, considering how long I've been waiting for this album.

[eversonpoe]

^ reading your review earlier had me worried, but then i just read this and i feel a whole lot better about looking forward to this album.

(i try to never listen to leaks/streams before an album comes out, so i've only heard the early/live versions of the songs on not here not now)

[richardp]

This is AOTY so far. Unbelievably stirring, haunting, terrifying, and beautiful piece of art that tops The Seer in every way. I'm truly in awe of this record.

[Piko]

I caved... Loving it. I can already say that I might be enjoying this more than The Seer (which is an amazing album). This album is absolutely chaotic. I don't think i'll be putting this album down for awhile. Some of this stuff is very reminiscent of early swans, but better, and more refined. If The Seer is the culmination of what Gira had done up until that point, To Be Kind did it as well and a whole lot better.

[richardp]

Won't be a 10/10.
Callin' it now. It will be a 9.1

SO CLOSE.

I was ONE DECIMAL away. Not sure whether to be ashamed or proud of how well I can predict Pitchfork scores.

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/...ns-to-be-kind/

[Rdm]

JUST A LITTLE BOY

The melodies are amazing

[xmd 5a]

JUST A LITTLE BOY

The melodies are amazing

One of my favourite things about this album is Gira's vocal delivery. He sounds the most 'deranged' he has even been on some of these tracks. TOUSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSANT. LLLLLLLLLLL OUUVER TOOOOO WAAAAAAAA.

[Iran_Ed]

The tour started on Wednesday night in DC. They did four new songs along with three from To Be Kind and one from The Seer. Michael is going to have a heart attack on stage one of these days. I thought he was going to hurt himself during
The Apostate.
Oxygen has now been turned into a slow moving sludgefest.

[3:15]

The tour started on Wednesday night in DC. They did four new songs along with three from To Be Kind and one from The Seer. Michael is going to have a heart attack on stage one of these days. I thought he was going to hurt himself during
The Apostate.
Oxygen has now been turned into a slow moving sludgefest.

Christ this sounds amazing. I cannot wait to see them next month.

[Kunstmord]

After repeated listens, I have to say, my opinion of the album has improved drastically. Still don't like the studio versions of Natalie Neal and She Loves Us!, but I finally got into the other songs.
Just a Little Boy now sounds awesome.

I would love to hear a sludgefest version of Oxygen.
How do the new songs sound?
Did they play Bring the Sun part only, or the whole song (with Touissant Louverture)?

Hopefully will see them in November when they come to Moscow.