Soundtracks for the Blind is my least favorite, its overlong and uninteresting. Love of Life is a distant second, but probably because I listened to it immediately after the masterpiece White Light from the Mouth of Infinity.
Pic related, my favorite Swans album. It's intense and hypnotic and doesn't have a bad song on it.
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redpill me into listening to swans, everyone seems to like at least one thing by them, but I don't know where to start, or why I should start
Their output is pretty varied. What kind of music do you like?
What kind of music do you like normally
Favourite is SFTB
Least Fave is Great Annihilator
Well, for reference, the last album I listened to for the first time and enjoyed was Songs for the Deaf, so I was thinking I would listen to Soundtracks for the Blind to complete the disability duology
Filth and Cop are brutal as fuck no wave
Greed and Holy Money are industrial
Children of God is gothic noise rock
The Burning World is shit
White Light from the Mouth of Infinity and The Great Annihilator are post punk
Love of Life is post punk and neofolk
Soundtracks for the Blind is a lot of dark ambient and post rock, and isn't really a traditional album and more of a compilation to me
My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky isn't really Swans, it's more Angels of Light, but its noise and post rock
The Seer is dark ambient and post rock, but is much more of a cohesive album than Soundtracks for the Blind
To Be Kind is noise and post rock, with a great balance of heaviness and intensity with beauty
The Glowing Man is an evolution of To Be Kind, except a lot more post rock, drone, and ambient
Listen to Children of God
>The Burning World is shit
Favorite Swans: None
Least Favorite Swans: All Of Them
Swans are the most overrated band on Sup Forums
Early Swans is literally metal/or hardcore for people who are too pussy, too pretentious, or too ADHD to enjoy those genres. That's why every track just repeats almost the same damn thing with no variation to water heavy music down for plebs.
Children Of God is Industrial for babies who are too scared to get into the much wilder and often harsher experiences of masters like Throbbing Gristle or Einstürzende Neubauten.
Neo-folk era Swans is for people who got too intimidated by the complexities of the arrangements of folk geniuses like Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Neil Young, and now Joanna Newsom so instead these people listen to the most repetitive folk songs on the planet. Shit, at least the really old as shit folk songs were not this long even if just as repetitive.
Soundtracks For The Blind is touted as their masterpiece, but it's really just Swans' gimmick record. On the surface it will impress anyone not experienced with a variety of music, because it sure does bring some variety, but a closer look will show just how awful it is. Take a track like Helpless Child for example. In a world where we have bands like Talk Talk and Godspeed You! Black Emperor who make these long dirges with constant changes, we have this track that makes very little changes if at all until later into the song when giant drones start to take over. Or what about Volcano, which, even though it's a dancey electronic track, has none of the percussive intricacy outside the main percussion heard in the beginning to make the track groove better like the best house/techno.
But perhaps the worst is their latest output, which does what potential GOAT krautrock contender band Amon Düül II did on their legendary Soap Shop Rock Suite, yet do it with every. Single. Track. Shit, they don't even have actual cool ass riffs to bookend the builds like ADII either, just bland builds.
That's probably the worst starting point, it's extremely inaccessible. I got into them through The Great Annihilator, which is accessible, but is still definitely Swans and not extremely accessible.
It's Swans on a major label, what else do I need to prove to you
i dont fully agree with this chart, but its something bro, enjoy
Its better than Love of Life
Early Swans is not metal or hardcore, its no wave, it's meant to go against traditional ideas of song structure, and it does so by repetition
Children of God isn't industrial, its noisy gothic rock
Neo-folk isn't the same as folk, it's a separate genre
Soundtracks for the Blind I don't like, but your arguments show that you don't actually understand what the purpose of it is
Their latest output isn't very similar to Amon Duul II other than a few tracks, and saying they don't have cool riffs is completely inaccurate, Screen Shot and Oxygen have amazing riffs.
I don't like Love of Life or The Burning World, but The Burning World is much worse
I enjoy the sound i guess
thanks for the responses, guess I'll try Annihilator and Children, see if I can pick up what they're putting down
Playing the same thing over and over again is structure as well.
Children Of God is neither noisy nor rock you dummy Swans fan!
Neo-folk may be separate, that doesn't mean it's NOT* simplistic and repetitively boring.
SFTB's purpose was to use all of Gira's old lying around tapes, anything else is just lying to yourself, and this doesn't make this a good record.
ADII did large builds/breakdowns with colorful timbres 40 years ago. Swans is that with extra repetition added since Gira's a lazy songwriter. Screen Shot's "riff" is just a simple two note bit not an actual riff, and Oxygen is literally copped from Glenn Branca who does so much more with that riff.
I don't see the problem with that. They set out to make a more quiet and subtle album with a focus on songwriting more than anything, and they succeeded. It's a much different flavor of post-punk than Children of God, but personally I enjoy the orchestral folky-ness of it all. It's calm and generally nice and I understand that people don't listen to Swans for that, but ignoring who made it it's a solid release. If anything, they were bound to go that direction regardless- songs like In My Garden and Real Love off Children of God could fit in quite well with some of TBW's tracks. Just because it was on a major label doesn't mean it's automatically bad.
The key word is "traditional". It does have structure, but not traditional structure. Children of God is noise and gothic rock. It's not noise music, but it's still noise rock.
You compared neofolk to traditional folk, which was invalid. It's repetitive, yes, but not boring.
SFTB isn't something I'm going to argue for, someone else can do that.
Just because someone else did buildups and breakdowns with colorful timbres doesn't mean nobody else can. Repetition isn't necessarily a bad thing, as repetition is necessary for music to sound good. Swans is repetitive, but it's hypnotic and intense, not boring. Screen Shot has a riff, just because it uses three notes (not two) doesn't mean it's not a riff. It's incredibly hypnotic, just like Oxygen's riff. You can't just say Oxygen was copped from Glenn Branca without any proof. Swans don't do a lot with the riff, but it's hypnotic and intense throughout.
>harsher experiences of masters like Throbbing Gristle or Einstürzende Neubauten.
Listen to 'A Hanging' off the Public Castration live album. And the album you mentioned isn't even industrial, industrial influenced at best.
>amon duul II comparison
The only part of 'Soap Shop Rock' you could really compare it to is 'Flesh Colored Anti-Aircraft Alarm,' and even then it's a stretch.
Current era swans has much more in common with the title track or 'Yeti Talks To Yogi.'
It also sound to me like you're the ADHD one considering you seem to dislike their attempts at minimalism in rock.
Also listen to their live albums, those are arguably their best work, and sound nothing like the studio work.
>ADII did large builds/breakdowns with colorful timbres 40 years ago.
...and the composers and jazzmen they took inspiration from did it before them. I didn't know one country and period in time had all these concepts on lock.
>Bassline of 'Oxygen' is copied from Lesson 2
Only concept shared is double stop on the down beat. If that's grounds for copying then most blues songs are copies.
I hate you
I don't like Michael Gira's voice for the style, but I will try to get around to listening to it again without thinking of it as a Swans album. Major labels aren't automatically bad, but with Swans, it doesn't really work to me.
Because I love To Be Kind or because I don't like SFTB
Sheer repetition is literally as traditional as it gets.
Sounds like neo-folk is just an inferior genre then. Just because you play the same folky shit in a minor key doesn't make it that much different.
SFTB is ass oh well.
Well, then don't be repetitive to the extent of being boring like all Swans.
Screenshot's riff lacks the harmonic backing to be a riff.
Oxygen is literally an homage to Branca, sounding very close to the track Lesson No. 2 by Branca. Pssshhh you Swansfags are so knowledgeable. Guess that's what happens if you like a garbage band.
Also cite moments of abrasive noise texture in COG. pro tip: you can't, that album sucks that much
>Listen to 'A Hanging' off the Public Castration live album.
>thinks repeating sparse metallic bits is industrial
LMAO why are Swansfags so dumb?
>Flesh Colored Anti-Aircraft Alarm
That's because every track does it like this track does.
>It also sound to me like you're the ADHD one considering you seem to dislike their attempts at minimalism in rock.
Yeah, because they are boring as shit. Like I said, no cool riffs nothing.
>If that's grounds for copying then most blues songs are copies.
That's cuz newer artists that did blues kept changing it up, progressing. Swans is a regression.
Tsk tsk if only you guys listened to good music.
>but it's really just Swans' gimmick record.
A two hour long dark ambient post rock album about life and death is a gimmick. Really makes you think.
>we have this track that makes very little changes if at all until later into the song when giant drones start to take over.
The song starts with two different 2 minute ambiances, then goes into a prog-esk ballad which lulls it into a 6 minute crescendo of battling melody's.
>Volcano, which, even though it's a dancey electronic track, has none of the percussive intricacy outside the main percussion heard in the beginning to make the track groove better like the best house/techno
Because the pulsating noises that start the track off and journey through it don't exist.
>SFTB's purpose was to use all of Gira's old lying around tapes, anything else is just lying to yourself, and this doesn't make this a good record.
I wonder if the phrase "soundtracks for the blind" has any meaning? Guess not, my brain is too tiny to think of anything with sentiment, therefor it means nothing at all.
idk maybe the one that's the band's most beloved album
>SFTB
>an album with Yum Yab Killers and Volcano
>dark ambient
>bringing up stuff like "b-but it's about life/death" like if it's above Linkin Park or Twenty One Pilots that do that as well
HAHAHAHAHAH why are Swans fans so dumb?
Exact same but switch your picks, reasons are the same as yours
>Guess that's what happens if you like a garbage band.
KEEEEEEEEEEEEEK
It must be easy to call an album something when you haven't heard it
By traditional, I mean verse-chorus song structures.
Neofolk isn't an "inferior genre", it's just not folk, it has much more experimentation and some industrial influence.
Swans is repetitive but not boring.
Your definition of a riff isn't the actual definition of a riff.
An homage isn't a bad thing.
There is no abrasive noise in the album, that's not what makes it noise rock.
>LMAO why are Swansfags so dumb?
He wasn't referring to the song because it's industrial, it was because it's harsh.
Not every track in new era Swans sounds the same, or uses the same formula.
They're not boring, they're repetitive. You don't need "cool riffs" to be good.
Blues didn't really change it up. Blues is a 12 bar progression that can't be changed too much or it isn't blues. The only way it progressed was by fusing it with different styles, like jazz or rock, but even then, it didn't change much musically, just with instrumentation. Swans do change it up.
>using rym secondary genres as a citation
Hahhahaahahahahaha! Does this mean SFTB is a spoken word album, too? NOPE, it has singing all over it.
Of course a Swans fan would do this. They wouldn't be doing this if they had actually listened to Dark Ambient, but they are too narrowminded due to their ADHD.
It's too long and boring to me
Very few Swans fans have ADHD just from the nature of the music. Saying someone has ADHD doesn't mean anything other than that they have short attention spans or are easily distracted. Dark ambient is ambient music that is dark, which SFTB is.
Good argument. It looks like I'm done for.
>doesn't realize that verse chorus and similar structures were added because samey structure is boring
>thinks a couple weird sounds here and there makes up for long song repetitive folk
>doesn't know that riffs need to be heavy, otherwise they are just melodies
>still calling an album with no distorted/or abrasive texture work noise rock
>thinks guitar with effects is industrial
>thinks what essentially equates to 1 bar is better than blues 12 bar that brought more variable ideas
This, people is why you never listen to Swans for an extended period of time. It's like that saying that went for sluts, ya know...hump and dump? You do that with Swans because listening to them too much will give you music AIDs and you'll be unable to understand music at all.
Favourite: Love of Life
Least favourite: To Be Kind
>doesn't know that dark ambient has its roots in industrial, not ambient, thus being technically a post-industrial genre
I swear, I don't even have to do anything. These Swansfags just up their own stupidity.
Why post your own picture while you're done? Is it a hat tipping gesture?
Verse-chorus was created as a way to make songwriting easier.
Neofolk isn't just weird sounds added, it's more than that.
Riffs don't need to be heavy, they just need to be short and repeated. Melodies can be heavy too.
It's more gothic rock than noise rock, there's just some noise rock influence that is very noticeable.
Guitar with effects is not industrial. You're the one who called Swans industrial in the first place, I wouldn't call them that, they're just influenced by that.
I didn't say a 1 bar pattern is better than a 12 bar pattern, you can't say either is necessarily better. It just depends on the usage.
You clearly don't understand music based on your definition of a riff, so saying I don't understand music because I like Swans is unreasonable.
You criticize Swans for doing something they don't do and not doing things they never intended to do.
You can't say dark ambient isn't rooted in ambient. It is rooted in industrial, but it is predominantly rooted in ambient.
All of swans' songs are bad
>redpill me
I legitimately dislike that phrase.
Just say "convince me" instead.
>>thinks guitar with effects is industrial
I forgot, metal machine music was made with a piano
>>still calling an album with no distorted/or abrasive texture work noise rock
I guess you haven't listened to children of god either.
>>doesn't realize that verse chorus and similar structures were added because samey structure is boring
>doesn't know that post-rock uses linear song structures
>This, people is why you never listen to Swans for an extended period of time. It's like that saying that went for sluts, ya know...hump and dump? You do that with Swans because listening to them too much will give you music AIDs and you'll be unable to understand music at all.
That's not an argument nor does it make any fucking sense
I guess dark ambient is just post-industrial with a different name...
On THIS episode of "how dense can Swans fans be?", we got three dummy fans of The Swans. Wanna see how dumb they are? LETS FIND OUT!
No, it is literally rooted in straight up industrial. Like, yeah there's Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze influence, but it's their earlier darker work that's more musique concrete than ambient. Industrial is also heavily musique concrete influenced as well. Literally go do your research, kid cuz you got no clue. But then, Swans fans probably just come up shit out of their ass.
Writing one section is easier than writing two. Easier my ass.
Yeah, neofolk is repetitive garbage.
Riffs definitely need to be heavy. It's literally why even melody driven Maiden harmonized their parts. Jesus christ you guys are actually retarded or that musically illiterate.
>changes to its gothic rock
LMAO Swans fans backtracking as usual since they don't know shit.
>You're the one who called Swans industrial in the first place
I called CoG industrial, not PCIAGI. Proving me right about y'all's ADHD.
>You're the one who called Swans industrial in the first place
Yeah, Swans use 1 bar like shit. Blues uses 12 bar like GOAT.
No, you dummy, MMM was made through feedback noise coming from a guitar. Different from Swans.
>I guess you haven't listened to children of god either.
>still hasn't cited anything from it
>has no clue that post-rock actually changes things up a great deal like GYBE's Dead Flag having a spoken word dude, then a train, then strings, etc.
So I guess the answer is "pretty dense".
BUT is this their limit?
FIND OUT NEXT TIME ON "HOW DENSE CAN SWANS FANS BE?"!
I was always saying it was gothic rock, just that it was noise influenced. Riffs don't need to be heavy, the definition of a riff is a short repeated part. Writing one section is more difficult because you have to keep it interesting, yet changing sections will do that job for you. I'm a songwriter and have used both, you clearly don't know what you're saying.
The guy talking about MMM was being sarcastic.
You clearly don't know what industrial is, and you never called COG industrial, you just said "early Swans", which is not industrial but no wave.
Also, I need to do this
>BUT is this their limit?
*there
I misread it, just ignore the last part. I thought it was "is their a limit" not "is this their limit"
Still no citation of noisy textures.
Still thinks I am using the common definition of riff when my context implied something more harmonically interesting.
Still thinks writing one section is somehow harder because he's too uncreative to write a second one.
Still thinks I never called CoG industrial when the first post says:
>Children Of God is Industrial for babies
Oh, if we only could harness this stupidity into energy, it would be cheaper than coal which would make democrats and republicans friends again.
Best is Great Annihilator as I think it's the band's most consistently solid set of songs as well as acting as the closest thing to a nexus point of the band's 3 distinct eras.
Worst (that's not the obvious copout answer) is Greed for no particular reason other than I like it less than the others. It's still a fine album in its own right.
listen to great annihilator then white light then you're done
...
Soundtracks is my fave, followed by The Seer
My least favourite is probably Filth.
I'm not really into their early period (Filth to Holy Money) as a whole either, and it's just kinda an underdeveloped version of Cop
Popular =/= Bad
Personally, I think it's a pretty solid neofolk album
whoever made this is a massive retard
I was just thinking the same thing
Pretty much spot on
>still hasn't given a single fucking argument, just makes up nonsensical shit from his tumor plagued brain
>calls anyone stupid
Oh the irony.
Hey this is pretty Gud if you want some more filth-cop era stuff, especially the fast rythmic style from filth
let's put a smile on that face shall we
SFTB > Seer > TGA > TBK > COG > My Father > TGM > White Light > Holy Money > Greed > Love of Life > Cop > Burning World > Filth
Just by what I listen to the most, I have yet to listen to the entirety of burning world, children of god is not bad.
Tbk>filth>seer>cop>sftb>greed>holy money>white light>tga>tgm>love of life>my father>cog>>>>burning world
...
Yikes
Please show me your -good music-
i started with My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky when it came out and went from there.
I started with the seer and mistaked the title track for the entire album on youtube. Don't think I was truly a fan until Tbk
I don't like any of the longer swans tracks. They are boring. Acoustic swans are the best