Jarboe wrote the best Swans song

>Jarboe wrote the best Swans song

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Thank goodness she didn't sing it with her annoying nasal voice.

Now if she wrote Blind, Power for Power, and Killing For Company. Then we'd be talking.

It's not the best Swans song though.

Duh
You act like this is some kind of secret

k but it is though

It seems pretty secretive, I only found out through the credits on discogs for Swans Are Dead, nowhere else is there specific writing credits for any of the material on SFTB.

The best Swans song is Cloud of Forgetting

The studio version of that track was a big let down, the version on "The Gate" sounded so promising, but all of that intensity and noise was gone in the studio version.

That's a problem I have with TGM in general, it's too soft and refined sounding, it has no real edge.

jarboe is underrated af seriously
maybe she didn't have the best voice in the industry but she is a really respectable artist who has collabed with people like JG Thirlwell of Foetus, Tony Maimone, and more

Helpless child is a fucking shit song.
I don't get why the most generic tracks of post-rock bands are praised as the best.
I mean it sounds so unoriginal.

>best swans song
>posts the worst swans song

dude epic its about the environment but it sounds like its about someone killing their muM!! how do they think of this!!

>It's a Sup Forumstard lets his political stance dictate what he likes in art episode

You people are sad and autistic. Meanwhile your better half - republicans - watch and enjoy things regardless of their political leaning. Literally tumblr, you are literally an SJW for your own agenda.

think you might be a bit spooked there

you're a fucking idiot. he's insulting the fact that the "comparing environmental destruction to killing your mother" analogy has been done to death. Fucking Metallica did it in 1989.

wtf i hate mu now

at least more than pol

Wait am I retarded for never thinking about that?

What is Swans' best post-rock in your opinion?

And Neurosis, their album together is tight
But kids jumped into Swans just 5 years ago and throw shit at her
Kids are stupid, breaking news

oh you made a thread about it as well?

>Helpless Child
>Best Swans song

Not even the best song on SFTB, The Sound is

Well conflicting credits then, cause Swans Are Dead does apparently credit her according to discogs.

>lyrics include the word gasoline
>hurrr, it's about killing the earth. gira is a hack
there's obviously a lot more to it than that.
No.

>there's obviously a lot more to it than that.
feel free to elaborate :-)

Animus is the best song on SFTB bud

The Sound is overrated. Both Animus and Empathy are better than that track.

Jarboe only wrote three of the songs on SFTB, it says so right on the packaging for the album.

Who else got spooked by Hypogirl the first time?

Volcano spooked me with its lyrics

I try to sleep to Soundtracks and if I make it to Hypogirl I always get spooked

This guy knows

thats not New Mind

I will say the studio version is nowhere near as good as it is live

test

A lot of the lines don't apply in any way to a benevolent mother-earth figure. If you take the lyrics literally and in context with the other themes present on the album, references to faith, confusion, and civilization become clear.
prepare for a puerile """"analysis""""
1/2

>Now you be the mother, and I'll be your fool. I'll hide myself deep inside your crimson pool
Bleeding mother analogy can apply to any of those things. Crimson pool isn't very vague but it doesn't narrow down the theme.
>hide myself deep inside
>subject is mother
This sets the stage. The next few lines should convince you that he's being sustained by the illicit side of something.
>The muddy water runs beneath your folds. You won't let me breathe. You won't let me go.
Here, despite the "muddy water" phrase, the idea of the song being a direct reference to nature is killed. The phrase is obviously referring to the ugly or contaminated essence of something.
>Now you be the stranger, and I'll be the white-skinned son.
Defined perspective. Also, white-skinned just means young, un-tempered, etc.
>You'll blacken my innocence with sugar and opium.
applied morals, temptation, coerced addiction, etc.
>The children were suffocating down in your damp cave; and you were the mother, and I was the sleeping slave.
forceful, contrived authority. damp cave conspicuously refers to the womb, and the suffocation can be likened to religious confusion or general aimlessness.
>Protect me from violence. Hold me in your cool lips.
furthers the comparison to the nurturing and oppressive side of mothers. again, characteristics of the entities I mentioned are easy to apply to this depending on how you interpret the words
>You'll drug me with kindness so I can pretend I exist.
goals define individuals. the entity is creating and molding the minds of the people under it
>Now you be the only child. I'll suck on your breast.
Instinctual duty to this entity is described.
>You'll feed me with gasoline. I'll burn my name in your head
The thing you're working for feeds you a purpose, and the individual is created in this oppressive, baseless context.

You do realize that Helpless Child is in no way related to the environment right?

I just checked the vinyl and my CD. No credits are made anywhere except for the cover, which only lists what instruments people played. Here's the inside. It's just a double-sided sheet of paper.

All of this comprises an extended poetic representation of those themes. Nature and motherhood only make up the backdrop.

Version from version differ, look the album up on discogs.

Maybe their information is wrong, I don't know though, I can't verify as I don't have any of the 3 versions where writing credits supposedly are assigned to tracks.

youtube.com/watch?v=tOHPh6fbhGE
best Swans song coming through

>Best Swans song
>Anything from the gothic era

pick one.

this is the single most poignant, depressing, artful thing they've ever created
I'll pick two

>anything from the no wave era

ftfy

wait ignore this post the no wave era is the best era

While it is a worst album, I think "God Damn The Sun" from The Burning World is way more poignant song than anything from White Light or Love of Life.

How do you not love Stay Here, Power For Power, Weakling, Half Life, Your Property, I Crawled, Raping a Slave, Heaven, Time is Money, Sealed in Skin, Fool #2, A Screw (Holy Money) and Coward?

see i can't read

No, it's not even close. Also, Love of Life and To Be Kind are both worse than The Burning World. God Damn The Sun is a very shallow song, while Song For The Sun is a shocking stroke of lyrical genius. On another note, I'm having trouble deciding whether I like The Seer or The Glowing Man more. I've listened to them both dozens of times. With The Seer, I love the narrative throughout the album, and there are some very, very strong moments (Mother Of The World, The Wolf -> The Seer -> The Seer Returns, A Piece Of The Sky), but the abominations that are Lunacy and 93 Ave. B Blues piss me off to no end. The Glowing Man is an incredible, consistent album, and it's a lot more pleasing to listen to for the most part, but The World Looks Red / The World Looks Black is nothing more than a grating 14-minute interlude to me. These two albums are both so close to being perfect experiences. I'm going to need to listen to The Glowing Man a few more times with an ear for lyrics to see if I can come up with something that resembles a narrative. Or maybe I'll finally grow to like TWLR/TWLB, in which case I'd be set.

>no Blackout
>no Nothing
>no Anything For You
>no Fool
>no Money Is Flesh
>no Why Hide
>no Cop

youtube.com/watch?v=pFclS5OOo0s
Are there any more songs where Jarboe sings like this? Maybe on her solo records?

this is the least shitpost-y swans thread I've ever seen

these guys get it
the glowing man was really a let down, the final mix of the title track lost all it's energy

but the best Swans song is She Loves Us

You're my opposite, I've discovered bizzaro version of me on this site.

You love TGM but hate TWLR/TWLB, easily my favorite track on that otherwise disappointing album, title track is an obvious standout.

hate Lunacy, I see that as a career highlight and one of the greatest openers ever.

To Be Kind is probably their best album

I love The Seer but there is no narrative to that album to me, I think even To Be Kind has a more logical progression when it comes to lyrical content than that album does.

You list Mother of The World as a highlight on The Seer, yet you hate TBK.. TBK is basically an album full of MOTW's, except they're properly executed and doesn't feature terribly awkward transitions, not to mention sound way better too.

>You now hear the opening riff in your head

Swans at this point of their career are Nu-AOR
Dad rock

I see The Seer as a concept album in which the central figure is a creature subjected to violent enlightenment after being alienated from society. There are so many metaphors involving and comparisons between human civilization, nature, and spirituality on the album that I imagine a godly figure that is the manifestation of these traits interacting with the main subject after Mother Of The World. The Wolf provides the lens through which you can see the album this way. I could go into depth and describe the progression through each song, but if the examination of Helpless Child (a song I don't have any attachment to, and thus went through hastily) is a reliable indicator, it would take me hours; it might take days, as I'm pretty slow in the head
I can understand why you say that TBK consists of MOTWs, but I'm not sure if I agree. A lot of the songs seem to be stylistically inverted MOTWs. To Be Kind is fairly unified with regard to theming and lyrical content, but I'm not a big fan of the songs themselves. I'm interested in probing further: how would you rank the songs on TBK?
1. Nathalie Neal
2. Some Things We Do
3. Kirsten Supine
4. To Be Kind
5. Just A Little Boy
6. She Loves Us
7. BTS / TL
8. Oxygen
9. Screenshot
10. A Little God In My Hands
By the way, I don't hate TBK. I like every Swans album excepting Love of Life

lol

bump

helpless child was written by gira, according to wikipedia

it was absolutely written by gira

I don't fault you for this, but I think you're reading more into the lyrical content of post-reunion Swans than Gira ever did. It's very stream of consciousness for him during those live shows where these words form. Not to undermine any meaning you pull from that though, but I guess I just don't see that "narrative" more a general theme and mood. It's also you bring up human civilization and spirituality, I basically see To Be Kind as a deconstruction of that in a way, it is totally centered on the limitations of being human and stripping that to its barest form and trying to break away from those limitations into something higher. The lyrics to "Screen Shot" and "A Little God In My Hand" are very evocative of this, so I'm somewhat surprised they're so low on your list, while you seem to feel very strongly for "Some Things We Do" I'm seeing a pattern that leads me to believe it has less to do with lyrical content on TBK and more to do with the approach to instrumentals, you went with the softer more cathartic and uplifting songs rather than the ones that hit you head first with raw power.

1. Oxygen
2. Screen Shot
3. A Little God In My Hands
4. Just A Little Boy
5. Nathalie Neal
6. She Loves Us
7. Some Things We Do
8. To Be Kind
9. Kirsten Supine
10. BTS / TL

Seer

1. The Apostate
2. The Wolf / The Seer
3. Lunacy
4. Mother of The World
5. The Seer Returns
6. 93 Ave. Blues
7. Avatar
8. A Piece of the Sky
9. Song for a Warrior
10. The Daughter Brings The Water

so what's the big idea OP? are you a jarboe fag?

oh, better delet then OP

OP was using incorrect information given by discogs

Phew

Really dodged a bullet there

I'm absolutely reading into it more than Gira did, but the lyricism does change a lot between these two albums. You could never find a narrative worked into TBK. In The Seer, recurring imagery plays a massive role in the lyrics. They describe actions taking place and exchanges being made; they create a setting, which changes drastically as the album progresses. The Seer serves as another transitional increment between the lyrical style he really perfected on the scale of individual songs in SFTB and his most recent work.

The songs in To Be Kind are (excluding Kirsten Supine, which also uses strong imagery to describe a scene that evokes an emotion) isolated, unique entities within the album that expose the naked idea behind the song through lyrics. His stylistic development is a concept that I find fascinating. I'm inclined to believe that his new method stems entirely from the second half of The Seer, which he made into Toussaint. While trying to work lyrics into the song he stumbled across a phrase that called to mind both images and ideas or emotions.

The whole really is greater than the sum of the parts in TBK. If you view it as a single work, it absolutely does seem like a deconstruction of those things. The swirl of emotions and ideas does coalesce into something bigger, but as a listening experience I find The Seer so much more engaging. You're right in supposing that I don't hold lyrics in very high regard when assessing the individual songs of TBK. It is the instrumentals that are more important to me, and I don't find those in TBK as interesting as I do those in The Seer. I also think that the way imagery forces your mind to work adds another dimension to The Seer which cannot readily be found in TBK.
I'm won't separate The Seer Returns from the two preceding songs
1. The Wolf -> The Seer -> The Seer Returns
2. A Piece Of The Sky
3. Mother Of The World
4. The Apostate
5. The Daughter Brings The Water
6. Avatar
7. Lunacy
8. 93 Ave. B Blues

Your rankings for TBK lead me to believe that you enjoy climactic and energetic songs that progress rather linearly. When I look at your rankings for The Seer, I'm inclined to believe that you enjoy dynamic songs more, especially with your low rating for Avatar. I can't form a good conception. What do you look for in these songs?

youtube.com/watch?v=h9ood2_A0hU
underappreciated Swans song coming through

New Mind is better in Gira's solo concerts tbqh

the first time I heard Animus I had to pause when I thought the song was over and re-listen a few times. I had actually listened all the way from Animus to Bloodsection and thought it was all one song

jarboe is not underrated
nearly everyone discussing Swans rightfully credits her as the second most important member throughout the band's history

Yeah but Gira wrote

"Thank you we are done no-AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH"

Well, we are done. And... we'd like to thank *you* for, uh... being here HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUH

Swans Are Dead has the most annoying fucking crowd. If I met the man that interrupts every damn song outro, I'd scorn him.
"I love you Michael!"
"Don't stop!"
"One more time!"
all the same person

I agree with that list, though I do enjoy every track almost equally. I usually just play the damn thing all the way through (sometimes skipping BtS/TL, I might need to sit on that one a bit longer though)

there's a lot of hate in this thread for the grooves of TBK, and I feel like tracks like She Loves Us, Screenshot and A Little God in My Hands are some of their best heavy work. I love the idea of exponentially building on a riff until it barely sounds like it did in the beginning.
Like, how can anyone hate a little God? That brass explosion literally makes my ears cum, and I LOVE that weird chorus at that creeps up at the end.

Going to slightly alter my list after another listen-through. I wonder if you closed the thread
1. Nathalie Neal
2. Some Things We Do
3. BTS / TL
4. Kirsten Supine
5. To Be Kind
6. Just A Little Boy
7. She Loves Us
8. Oxygen
9. Screenshot
10. A Little God In My Hands
>heavy
BTS / TL, Just A Little Boy, and To Be Kind are the only songs on the album with weight, and that heaviness only emerges occasionally within them. They're constructed well, though. I must also admit that Bring the Sun is a substantial "section".

don't patronize me, I'm aware of Filth, Cop, etc. It's late, and heavy was a poor adjective choice.

Anyways, I really feel like Nathalie Neal would have been excellent if the outro were fleshed out. But then again, it serves it purpose and sends chills after that amazing romp.

It would probably be more virtuous to ignore your first line, but I don't think I patronized you. I was not conceding that the songs were structured well as a way of offsetting a slight at their heaviness. What I meant to say was that the dynamic nature of them, with heavy and less-heavy sections, was a good design choice in my eyes. The outro of Nathalie Neal could reasonably have been extended, but there isn't much room for it to be fleshed out, as the simplicity is what creates the contrast which makes it effective

Not that guy but I always thought The Sound was far and away the high point of the album, especially live

idk if I'd say "far and away," but it is probably the best
every song on SFTB is utterly fantastic

bump

I present to thee:
youtube.com/watch?v=Cak4j6ZiVHk
the thinking man's Helpless Child

>all the same person

your frustrated observance makes me laugh.

Anyway this is the best album. It's live, it's their best sounding, it's the best version of all their bests

We Rose >

NOWWWWW RIIIIIIIIIIIDE

I read the book on Gira's recommendation. Was pretty good

I don't think The Seer and To Be Kind are going for the same thing, so naturally I look to different things within the songs of the respective albums. For To Be kind, that album to me is very much centered around those energetic and climactic songs, they take one simple groove and build incrementally at a minimalist pace. My top picks for that album accomplishes that very effectively, Screen Shot is probably the best example of that on the entire record.

The Seer on the other hand isn't as clinical of an album, it is more built on setting and atmosphere and tone, and I agree with the other user that it does conjure up more imagery than TBK does. So for this album I think the dynamic and more sprawling songs work really well. Just in general the production and mixing of this album also favors this approach, I don't think the straight forward groovy songs of that album work nearly as well without the clean and crisp production of TBK.

Like I said above I do agree with you on the imagery. But, part of why I love TBK personally is because I think individually it holds up much better than Seer does, I can listen to any singled out track from TBK and get a lot out of it, they really stand strong on their own whereas with The Seer, to get anything out of the 2nd half of that album (closer excluded) I have to listen to the whole album through. That said, I do think The Seer is more of an "experience" to go through on account of the atmosphere, imagery and variety to the song and song structures.

Could you elaborate a little on the last 3 tracks on your list? I'm curious why they come last, I'm going to guess it has something to do with the straight forwardness in their approach.

Is there anything you do like about them? The wall of noise of A Little God? the guitar textures of Oxygen? the percussion of Screen Shot?

Music video did irreversible damage to that song for me.

youtu.be/Rs_GNez4UGI

>no job

but that's the only good swans

I kind of enjoy the low-budget surrealism of it, but damn if Mikey hopping around holding a torch and an axe isn't some goofy shit.

poor mikey was forced into this by a record studio, he had no creative control or even input in these early Swans music videos. They're terrible.

True. It's not like Swans is a band that really needs videos though, the music conjures imagery well enough on it's own.

damn you're starting to sound like my parents

Agreed. That said, I can imagine a pretty great music video existing for "Just a Little Boy"

There is no best Swans song

What about The Apostate?

Failure.

All good, but not as good.