ITT:

We discuss our favorite Swans album, in a civil manner.

I like cop, because I work out a lot. What do you like, user?

this album is too perfect to work out to. I give it my full attention and just lose myself in it. But, Filth, I can work out to.

What are your top 5 swans albums?

To Be Kind :)

1. Cop
2. Public Castration
3. Filth
4. To Be Kind
5. Soundtracks For The Blind

it's got to be filth. it feels the most raw and is oddly intimate.

yeah, i always get the feeling i'm watching a live show when i listen to filth even though it's studio-recorded

Always thought that Great Annihilator was underrated

I love everything about Soundtracks. The piano loop in the beginning and the drones and melodies fading in and out of the spoken word and helpless child is a perfect song with the those fucking drums at the end and then the aggressive songs and the quiet songs and the drone songs it's one of only a few albums so varied and captivating,

either white light or the burning world

Great Annihilator, I feel like it's the closest thing to a "nexus point" release in their career. It continued the post-punk direction of its immediate predecessors while both bringing back some of the raw energy of the early stuff and foreshadowing the post-rock direction of the later stuff. On top of that it's probably their easiest set of songs to digest, making it one of their most conventionally enjoyable records as well. I can definitely understand wanting to hear Swans in more extreme guises but I really like how Great Annihilator is a bit of everything.

This
Those ominous AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA's from Gira get me every time

1. Public Castration is a Good Idea
2. Soundtracks for the Blind
3. To Be Kind
4. The Seer
5. Filth

I hate Swans. I always have. That guy is a complete fucking waste. Just a total fucking waste of life as an opportunity to accomplish anything.
GG Allin had the balls to actually play with his own shit; Gira subjected his audience to the aural equivalent.

hi chris ott

I'm sure there's an era of the band you can enjoy, there's a couple major genre shifts throughout their discography.

putting these in order is pretty much impossible, and I love all their albums.
1. Filth
2. To be kind
3. The seer
4. cop
5. soundtracks for the blind
I want to put soundtracks on top because it's so impressive, but I don't listen to it all that much, plus it has just a few downer tracks.
Filth is just fun, it's so catchy and I can blast it in my car on my way to work. it's perfect

>filth
>filth

>filth
>filth
>filth
>filth
>cop
>filth

you angsty babies

>angst
>implying that is not what THE Swans is all about

Excluding the live albums, and in no particular order

The Great Annihilator
The Glowing Man
SFTB
Filth
TBK

TGM might be my favorite right now, but probably because its just the freshest. The live versions of the songs far succeed the album versions (especially in Deliquescing Live album) and I think it concluded their career appropriately. As much as I love songs like the Knot and Deliquescing, I think that in a studio setting they wouldnt have been as effective.

Who was at the final 3 earlier this month?

i can't get enough of the grooves of to be kind. it just hits the sweet spot for me

>The Swans

TBK's actually the post-revival release that has some misfires for me, like Swans is all about that momentum and catharsis but sometimes I just fail to get swept up in it the same way Seer and Glowing Man do. I still think it has some great songs but of their recent output it's the one that does the least for me.

any songs in particular you don't like? I think it's an amazing album, Giras vocals on it are on top and he sounds legit insane. Also the raw, angry, rock sound that harks back to their roots.

Swans Are Dead is my all-time favorite, followed closely by SFTB, The Seer, & The Great Annihilator.

The live versions of Blood Promise, Helpless Child, and The Sound off Swans Are Dead are fucking transcendent.

>the last great Prog Band in America is a fucking No Wave act
>not being into it

dats my favorite

1, SFTB
2. The Seer
3. Greed
4. Swans Are Dead Live Album
5. The Glowing Man

White Light basically tied with Swans Are Dead

SFTB
TBK
The Great Annihilator
The Seer
Children of God

Swans are Dead CD1 alone would be something like 4th

1 - Children of god
2 - The great anhilitator
3 - Love of Life
4 - Cop
5 - Filth

Bonus:
Skin - Ten songs from another world

I like current Swans but when I listen to an album I want to hear actual songs, not half hour crescendos, they used to be able to make gr8 albums and sound like a beast live. Now they can only do one, and not even as good as they used to.
Btw: I'm an oldfag that actually saw Swans live with Jarboe during TGA tour and saw them again on their last. The're not even comparable, old Swans BTFO current Swans, Jarboe was more important than most kids think.

holy shit, hi me

>cop/filth
>soundtracks for the blind
>public castration
>greed/holy money era
>everything else