I like the album, but Borve's "joke" comment hits the nail on the head. It does an air of ridiculousness about it.
Sermon on the Mount can seem ridiculous if you read it in the toilet. Everything is relative and depends on your expectations. In the case of something that takes itself perhaps too seriously (The Seer), upside-down understanding is quite possible and even too much seriousness is used as a tool for some parodies so for avoiding opposite effect you should try to empathise.
Far too much effort put into that album for me to come close to imagining it as a joke. Sounds like a bit of a hasty statement methinks.
I do think some of the lyrics can come across a bit cheesy, but I don't believe lyrics to be a strongpoint of Swans anyway. Although I do love the bit where Gira repeats "I see it all.." in The Seer song. Really natural sounding to me.
Sermon on the Mount can seem ridiculous if you read it in the toilet. Everything is relative and depends on your expectations. In the case of something that takes itself perhaps too seriously (The Seer), upside-down understanding is quite possible and even too much seriousness is used as a tool for some parodies so for avoiding opposite effect you should try to empathise.
I had no expectations, I'd never heard a Swans album prior to The Seer. I hadn't read a review prior to hearing it. In fact, the only thing I knew about it was that cartoken loved it, and given how we appear to have almost opposite taste in music a lot of the time that didn't bode well. But I enjoyed it. I did try to empathise, and it did cross my mind that they were in fact parodying art that does take itself too seriously by being bigger, better and more bombastic at doing precisely that: taking itself too seriously (1). In fact, after three or four listens I thought The Seer was a shoo-in for my favourite album of the year. Every listen since has simply revealed more of its' ridiculousness to me. I can't figure out how sincere the album is, and some of it is just plain silly. No doubt it's a very well put-together album, and maybe I don't have the same innate understanding of its' quirks and intentions as you, but I maintain that - despite it being a strong album and enjoyable listen - it is ridiculous. And, for me at least, that detracts from the album.
(1) Not too sure whether I'm "avoiding opposite effect" or running headlong into it with that one. In fact, I'm not even entirely sure what you meant.
I had no expectations, I'd never heard a Swans album prior to The Seer. I hadn't read a review prior to hearing it. In fact, the only thing I knew about it was that cartoken loved it, and given how we appear to have almost opposite taste in music a lot of the time that didn't bode well. But I enjoyed it. I did try to empathise, and it did cross my mind that they were in fact parodying art that does take itself too seriously by being bigger, better and more bombastic at doing precisely that: taking itself too seriously (1). In fact, after three or four listens I thought The Seer was a shoo-in for my favourite album of the year. Every listen since has simply revealed more of its' ridiculousness to me. I can't figure out how sincere the album is, and some of it is just plain silly. No doubt it's a very well put-together album, and maybe I don't have the same innate understanding of its' quirks and intentions as you, but I maintain that - despite it being a strong album and enjoyable listen - it is ridiculous. And, for me at least, that detracts from the album.
(1) Not too sure whether I'm "avoiding opposite effect" or running headlong into it with that one. In fact, I'm not even entirely sure what you meant.
Fair enough; I just tried to say I can understand that the whole atmosphere of the album can verge on ridiculous in some places for someone not familiar with Swans aesthetics. Actually that was very interesting for me to see someone else noticing something I thought to be intricately intertwined in the album with its complete opposite. I myself can't identify degree of sincerity of Michael Gira so I trust and try to give in to that atmosphere.
EDIT: And btw I'm listening to this:
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cartoken
Romanelli
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