Swans (1982–1997, 2010–2017, 2019–present) by DriftingOrpheus

Swans (1982–1997, 2010–2017, 2019–present)
(Art Rock, Experimental Rock, No-Wave)

Artist Score:

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Throughout their extensive history, alternative rock pioneers Swans have made a habit of metamorphosing, trading in bone-crushing no-wave anthems for folk-inspired, religiously-tinged ballads. In 2010, Swans emerged once more with My Father will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky, another drastic change in form and direction, prioritizing prolonged excursions drenched in post-rock fueled repetition. This formula was the basis for 2014's To Be Kind, an album that championed the creative advantages of welding moments of ear-splitting fortissimo and hair-raising delicacy. Take A Little God in My Hands for example. Even the most well-traveled listeners have to be taken back by the atomic force of the horn-powered flurry that kicks off the middle of the track. To Be Kind showcases Swans not merely dabbling in a musical style unseen in their discography, but perfecting it.

The centerpiece is the 34 minute odyssey, Bring the Sun/Toussaint L'Ouverture. A track detailing a Haitian slave revolt with all the ferocity one could imagine. It carries guitar hits that resemble facial punches that only cease once the skull has caved in. Incorporating horse whinnies and tribal chanting, the track dares one to ponder the music's inspiration, or even the headspace of the men crafting it. The most "straight-forward" rocker on the album is Oxygen, a song detailing an asthma attack with inertia that never ceases until the horn-soaked climax.

Rarely has an album embodied both a densely visceral and well-realized existence. The frightening aspect behind it all is that it seems to flow through the band so effortlessly, almost as vessels for transcendent music powered by an unseen force. While it's not a record for the conventional listener, you'd be hard-pressed to find an audiophile not displaced by To Be Kind's translucent beauty, or not horrified by its unfettered explicity.

"May planets crash, may god rain ash, to sear our skin, to fold us in
Kneeling close, seeking hands, our blood is warm, but what comes next?"

-Kirsten Supine

Standout Tracks:

1. Oxygen
2. She Loves Us!
3. Bring the Sun/Toussaint L’Ouverture

100.4
[First added to this chart: 06/24/2020]
Year of Release:
2014
Appears in:
Rank Score:
7,190
Rank in 2014:
Rank in 2010s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
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2016's The Glowing Man was intended to be the final stop for post-rock icons Swans. Even though it was not their final record, in many ways it feels like an ending, musically embodying a purifying crescendo. It's no secret that the band played their hand in a few false finishes in the past. 1996's Soundtracks for the Blind was a haunting, alluring attempt to combine Swans' music with a score to a film that did not exist. This also was planned to be the band's final musical epitaph. 2010 brought a new sound and a new Swans lineup and The Glowing Man was seen to be the concluding artistic flourish and what a flourish it turned out to be.

While the previous record, 2014's To Be Kind conveyed a seething, scathing critique of human indecency, The Glowing Man is a far more reflective and anguished experience, almost communicating that the emotional toll of the journey that this era of the band went through was a soul-altering odyssey. Take second track Cloud of Unknowing for instance, a 25 minute, bone-rattling lead up to a midpoint climax that I have yet to see duplicated. After the storm passes, the track slinks back into the bowels of darkness from which it was conceived, hissing chants of "Monster eater" and "Jesus feeler". The second half of the record commences with the towering Frankie M, a 20 minute pulse-pounding journey dedicated to a battle lost to drug addiction. An abridged version was featured in Swans' live sets as early as 2014 but the final form of the song serves as a moment of tempestuous strength and intense catharsis on the album. When Will I Return? details a horrifying rape-attempt that befell Michael Gira's wife Jennifer. Possibly the album's most gentile track, Jennifer claims to "Still kill him in her sleep". The penultimate track here is the title track, The Glowing Man. The most extensive cut on the album, clocking in at nearly 30 minutes, is the most chameleonic, beginning as an avalanche of bruising guitar hits. The track then simmers before swelling again into a furiously paced proclamation of bodily manifestation. Vocalist Michael Gira cries, "Joseph is moving his tongue in my neck, Joseph is riding a vein in my head, Joseph is cutting my arm on his bed, Joseph is making my body fly". After having listened to it, you'd be liable to admit to an out-of-body experience.

The Glowing Man only consists of eight tracks, eight tracks spanning nearly two hours with enough vexation, desperation and despair to rival a lifetime of alcoholic's anonymous meetings. I've stated in earlier write-ups that the band incorporates their music with a staunch focus on the dichotomy of sound decibles. The Glowing Man seems to consummate this idea with the concept of emotional contrast. Moments of exhilaration lap on the shores of severe hysteria and dejection. Additionally, It shines through in practice as well as from the listeners point of view. At times the album ceases to be organized sound, but instead formulates as a raw force of nature. Put simply, it sounds like a human soul crying out for liberation.

"I beat him on his face
And I stab with all my strength
And I scream until he goes
I scream until he's gone
Then I crawl across the road"

-When Will I Return?

Standout Tracks:

1. The Glowing Man
2. Cloud of Unknowing
3. Frankie M

97.8
[First added to this chart: 06/24/2020]
Year of Release:
2016
Appears in:
Rank Score:
970
Rank in 2016:
Rank in 2010s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
3. (=)
Buy album United States
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90.4 [First added to this chart: 06/04/2023]
Year of Release:
1998
Appears in:
Rank Score:
346
Rank in 1998:
Rank in 1990s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album United States
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89.6 [First added to this chart: 06/24/2020]
Year of Release:
2010
Appears in:
Rank Score:
373
Rank in 2010:
Rank in 2010s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album United States
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89.4 [First added to this chart: 02/22/2023]
Year of Release:
2017
Appears in:
Rank Score:
61
Rank in 2017:
Rank in 2010s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
6. (=)
Buy album United States
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In many ways, the 2010 rebirth of experimental rock giants Swans is an unflinching diagnosis of ugliness, but others would classify it as a deluge into beauty. The bands attempts to stretch allegories into long-form, punishing soundscapes was briefly traversed in 2010's My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky. The results were fruitful and served as insidious bits of precedent for following projects. Recorded between Brooklyn and Berlin, the 11 tracks would prove to be the band's most fatalistic, foreboding statement of their collective careers. The 12th LP from the post-rock plague-harbingers was released in August of 2012, four months before the Mayans predicted Earth's curtain call. It's entitled The Seer. It sounds like the apocalypse.

The album inaugurates opening track, Lunacy, with freezing hammered dulcimer that progresses into a trio of voices chanting the song's signature. The threesome is headlined by lead vocalist Michael Gira, flanked by Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker, who make up two-thirds of the band Low. They coalesce as they incant, "Hide beneath, your monkey skin; feel his love, nurture him; kill the truth or speak the name; lunacy...lunacy...lunacy." The track then winces as the chorus declares that "your childhood is over". A pilgrimage of lost innocence is beginning to take shape. Neighboring track, Mother of the World, is a coiling, gyrating nightmare of disorientation. Quick, pummeling guitar strikes, feverish bass and calculated drums dizzy the listener for the first four and a half minutes before soothing mandolin ceases the oscillation. Gira paints visions of a Mother Earth deflowered and desecrated by humanity's ignorance. He asserts, "And where are you now, o' mother of the world; we feed from your hands and we drink from your filth and your oil." It's a distinctly provocative experience of purposive repetition. A brief moment of minimalist stillness is heard on The Wolf, which features a singing-spoken word hybrid with only acoustic guitar as accompaniment. Then, with startling immediacy, the title track appears, ushered in by wailing bagpipes. The tracks spans 32 minutes and takes many forms, paralleling the shapeshifting nature of its cognomen. Gira echoes, "I see it all," as distant kick and snare drums curiously unravel partnered with a dishonest bass groove. The malevolent pillar of a track billows before relapsing into crushing guitar collisions. The Seer then drifts into a swampy, grimy harmonica that carries a nefarious, southern hospitality. The final phase resembles the ramblings of a transient which defy articulate translation but carry an intention that is identifiably sinister. The totality of the track is truly a species unto itself.

The ever-vigilant entity recovers with the subsequent track, The Seer Returns. This experience is more traditional, if that's the word for it. Gira emits amidst a chilling choral backing (which features former Swans constituent Jarboe), "I'm down here naked, there's a hole in my chest; both my arms are broken, pointing east and west; your life pours into my mouth, my light pours out of my mouth." The return hits a euphoric plateau just before the four minute mark with the arrival of a thundering drum crash as the track whirrs into a starless sky. What follows refuses any kind of classification but it does transport the band back to their no-wave origins in New York City. 93 Ave. B Blues is a reference to Gira's 1980's big apple quarters. The area was riddled with crime and malice and it's not difficult to connect the track to its contextual inspiration. It isn't always clear what is being heard throughout the song, as the only discernible instruments are the typhoons of guitar and drums heard at the climax. It remains the flag bearer for the bands' most terrifying outing. The Daughter Brings the Water feels like a sun-soaked day at the beach in comparison. However, the track has its own misgivings detailed through its proclamations. "Stilted bones, cloaked in foam; squeeze laughter from the lather; drink water from the daughter," Gira outlines. The vague nature of the imagery leaves much to interpretation but at this point, we'd be remiss to assume a virtuous exegesis. Just when the all the light seems to have escaped, the beguiling vocals of Karen O (of Yeah Yeah Yeahs fame) ease your fears. Behind understated piano she coos, "There lies a seed of a million more just waiting to become." Gira joins in as the track wonderfully combusts with chants of "Send them home". Song for a Warrior is a thematic outlier of serene, cloudless beauty.

The final act of the menacing record commences with Avatar, decorated with orchestral bells that convey the arrival of an ominous overlord. Gira finally surfaces at the 4:40 mark, claiming that "Your light is in my hand". This may be the first allusion to "Joseph", a spiritual companion that, Gira has claimed, has spoken through him. The "avatar" in question here makes a more visible appearance on 2016's The Glowing Man. The bells intensify in the final stages of the track, melding with a kinetic guitar passage that guides the song into the past. Tenth track, A Piece of the Sky, begins with what sounds like a crackling fire mixed with a steady rainfall before giving way to a tortured cry of incorporeal beings. The piece then evolves with hammered dulcimer as anxiety begins to swirl before an atmospheric drum procession creates the illusion of climbing an ever-extending mountain. We don't hear from Gira until after the 15 minute mark as bells twinkle with a heavenly grace. What we get is most definitely the finest poetry the band has ever produced. Gira asks, "In the wind of my lung, in methane and in love, in petroleum plumes, there's a floating slice of moon; in your tooth and your claw and your unforgiving jaws; are you there?" The thematic intention echoes a ponderance of a spiritual guiding light that is visible in all things. By the end of the track, we don't know if Swans have found it but they are not without hope. The last hissing, growling transmission from The Seer is entitled The Apostate. An Apostate is someone who renounces their faith which tells us that A Piece of the Sky has not decided the issue. The Apostate is less optimistic in its outlook as its narrator alternates between belief and condemnation. Sonically, it's unrelenting, completely devoid of recognizable form and only describable as a percussive fever dream. Guitar body blows conspire with drums that sound miles away that form a sonic texture that chases you as you flee from the threat of bodily harm. The latter half of the track begins to groove with the reintroduction of the bells found on Avatar. Gira spits"get out of my mind' and "we're on a ladder to God". We never find out if they get to Heaven as the track undergoes a psychedelic breakdown capped off by a cacophony of drums not out of place at a ritualistic sacrifice.

Though many Swans historians would point to albums such as 1987's Children of God or 1996's Soundtracks for the Blind when mentioning the band's most devilish collections, debate always seems to bestow that distinction on The Seer. The album gravitates to all things chiaroscuro, both sonically and spiritually. Swans' most dystopian sound collages are unearthed here, bolstered by brilliant guest performances that further elevate Michael Gira's caliginous meditations. Such meditations could only be done justice in this particular state, elongated and agitated, forcing listeners to confront their grotesque, philosophical aberrations. Though 2014's To Be Kind possessed the best amalgamation of the band's musical and metaphorical agility, it was The Seer which prophesied Swans' staying power in the scope of modern experimental music. The record presents 11 tracks possessing a hydrous anatomy that shear with the force of 1000 serrated blades. The Seer is a direct vein pumping blood into the heart of an act that expands its importance exponentially as time progresses, while intently observing from the shadows, surrounded by a collapsing blackness.

Standout Tracks:

1. Avatar
2. A Piece of the Sky
3. The Seer

87.7
[First added to this chart: 06/24/2020]
Year of Release:
2012
Appears in:
Rank Score:
4,000
Rank in 2012:
Rank in 2010s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album United States
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87 [First added to this chart: 06/24/2020]
Year of Release:
1996
Appears in:
Rank Score:
4,547
Rank in 1996:
Rank in 1990s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album United States
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85.9 [First added to this chart: 03/22/2023]
Year of Release:
2012
Appears in:
Rank Score:
45
Rank in 2012:
Rank in 2010s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album United States
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79.3 [First added to this chart: 06/24/2020]
Year of Release:
1991
Appears in:
Rank Score:
952
Rank in 1991:
Rank in 1990s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album United States
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78.7 [First added to this chart: 06/24/2020]
Year of Release:
2019
Appears in:
Rank Score:
149
Rank in 2019:
Rank in 2010s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Total albums: 20. Page 1 of 2

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Swans (1982–1997, 2010–2017, 2019–present) composition

Decade Albums %


1930s 0 0%
1940s 0 0%
1950s 0 0%
1960s 0 0%
1970s 0 0%
1980s 6 30%
1990s 5 25%
2000s 0 0%
2010s 8 40%
2020s 1 5%
Artist Albums %


Swans 20 100%
Country Albums %


United States 20 100%
Live? Albums %
No 19 95%
Yes 1 5%

Swans (1982–1997, 2010–2017, 2019–present) chart changes

Biggest climbers
Climber Up 1 from 17th to 16th
Filth
by Swans
Climber Up 1 from 11th to 10th
Leaving Meaning.
by Swans
Climber Up 1 from 10th to 9th
White Light From The Mouth Of Infinity
by Swans
Biggest fallers
Faller Down 2 from 9th to 11th
The Gate
by Swans
Faller Down 1 from 4th to 5th
Deliquescence
by Swans
Faller Down 1 from 16th to 17th
The Burning World
by Swans

Swans (1982–1997, 2010–2017, 2019–present) similarity to your chart(s)


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