Don't lie to me Sup Forums. Are Swans worth getting into their huge discography...

Don't lie to me Sup Forums. Are Swans worth getting into their huge discography? I've never listened to anything by them. If yes, what are the essential albums and where do I start?

>If yes, what are the essential albums and where do I start?

That heavily depends on what type of music you like the most.

>Are Swans worth getting into their huge discography?
No

listen to Cop and To Be Kind, and that's all

don't fall to Soundtracks For The Blind meme, there are better ambient-rock albums

You obviously start with Public castration is a good idea

like 30 seconds on the sticky and I found this, read the fucking sticky
imagine glowing man somewhere by the other post rock albums, it has more drone shit and incredibly drawn out songs

here's a more inclusive one

This is the best one. And I would recommend starting with To Be Kind, that's what made them click for me

>tfw the first album I listened to was Burning World
It was good that the edition I listened to had a bunch of extra tracks that was a lot better than the actual album

Yes, and just start from the beginning (Swans EP) and continue. If you want, after Swans Are Dead, listen to the solo Gira works, Angels of Light, The Body Lovers/Haters, and other music on the label by Akron/Family and Devandra. After that, My Father Will Guide Me through The Glowing Man.

To Be Kind
The Glowing Man
The Seer
Soundtracks for the Blind

yes, listen to what other people are saying in this thread.

and my 2 cents: don't leave out love of life, it's vastly underrated in their discography. i've always favored it to white light.

>do you like noise rock/no wave?

Listen to the pre-Children of God stuff.

>do you like post-punk

Listen to the stuff from Children of God to The Great Annihilator, with The Burning World being optional.

>do you like first wave post-rock?

Listen to Soundtracks For The Blind onwards, though the post-revival stuff is generally more accessible than Soundtracks.

There you go.

I actually agree with this. Love of Life was much better than I remembered it being upon a revisit. Also acts as a predecessor to the samples on Soundtracks.

deepcuts on youtube has a pretty extensive guide to swans worth checking out

I don't like their earlier stuff very much, Their 3 newer albums are god tier imo.

Which is weird when you consider that a good deal of The Seer takes the primal repetition of Filth and Cop and stretches it out to post-rock levels of grandeur, or how a song like Oxygen is basically their early sound but with more instrumental density and a little bit of swagger. Modern Swans isn't all that different from early Swans in concept, it's just bigger, grander, and perhaps less naively nihilistic. Not like they exactly forgot the lessons they learned in the 90s either but it all sounds cumulative to me.

oh ok.

wrong

>I would recommend starting with To Be Kind, that's what made them click for me
i concur.

interesting point. I didn't really listen to swans before the new trilogy of albums but i love these 3 albums so much that ive been digging through the rest of their discography. its good but I can't help feeling like im just taking notes on how they developed into the thing they are now (or i guess the thing they just ended)

>its good but I can't help feeling like im just taking notes on how they developed into the thing they are now (or i guess the thing they just ended)

Makes sense, I don't think Gira was blowing hot air when he said The Seer was the cumulation of nearly every musical avenue he's explored over his then 30 year career.

Google swans - filth and listen to that on youtube

>wrong
Holy shit, you proved me wrong.

I like Filth and basically everything after Holy Money, but Cop and Greed/Holy Money are boring.

Gimme

Greed/Holy Money I get even if they recently sort of clicked for me but Cop is straight up a superior Filth. But I wouldn't give up on Greed/Holy Money as they're basically the first 2 but sparser and drearier. Also sets the field for Children of God.