So, what Swans album should I check out first?

Children of God is kind of the center work between the heavy-ier stuff before and the folk-ier stuff after.

Children Of God was the bridging album between their more abrasive recs and the later acoustic goth albums, so I'd go for that first. I think there's a double cd with most of their early albums on Young God, not a bad bet too.

xpost

Soundtracks for the Blind

Children of God.

I'm also partial to Love of Life which isn't generally considered a key work, but I may like it best.

they're solid enough that you can pretty much start anywhere I think - I have a special fondness for White LIght from the Mouth of Infinity but really it's pretty much all good

haha I recently discovered I had the music video for Love of Life on some old VHS tape of mine. Good shit.

Children of God

I'd also say the "Various Failures" comp is better than its sources, if you're looking for to hear their best song, "God Damn The Sun"

if you're looking for to hear their best song, "God Damn The Sun"

FALSE

They do have a masterpiece, Cop- but it's possibly the most abrasive as well. Then again I could never stand the acoustic goth stuff. Saw them at the Limelight at the beginning of that phase and yawn yawn yawn

FALSE

what would you recommend then, j0hn?

xpost: not their best track, mind.

i'm partial to 'love of life' too. i'd given up following them after 'the burning world' but 'love of life' renewed my swans love. i concur with 'children of god' as a good entry point as you can then move forwards or backwards in their sound.

for me 'cop', 'greed' and 'holy money' are all masterpieces.

Children of God. Also, seek out Feel Gool Now, the 'live' album - probably my favorite overall.

The Great Annihilator should be next.

Then, for comparison purposes, buy Soundtrack For The Blind and Cop. You'll find they are very different, but both AWESOME.

I'd only pick one Swans album to avoid altogether, and I'm sure most of the posters here will agree, and that's The Burning World. It was a, erm, misstep, for sure.

yeah even the Burning World has some good stuff (the "Can't Find My Way Home" cover is one of Jarboe's finest moments) & Laswell's production is really smart - it's not a neat fit w/Swans, but it's interesting in the overall picture. I also think it was maybe important as a step between the more abrasive Swans and more - what? mystical? - thing they became.

Great Annihilator is a good place to start I think, although if you wanna know why people thought they were so goddamn intense, go with Children of God and go directly to "Beautiful Child"

or the live version of same on Feel Good Now, fucking A

Children, Soundtracks, Annihilator... all great.

i love the burning world but I guess I'm the only one. in fact, i'd recommend starting there if you're a newcomer, and then "the great annihilator" if you want something similar yet more ragged and mean

I love the burning world. I didn't like the Great Annihlator when it came out though and haven't listened to it since. I remember thinking it was lacking in the tape loops and hahn rowe violing and all that stuff that I loved so much on the Love of Life/White Light period. They had a later live album from that period called Omniscience I think that was really good.

My favorite is still Holy Money. I'd say if you're more curious about the louder side than the acoustic side, but don't want the whole-hellhole-enchilada, Holy Money. "Money is Flesh" the most propulsive piece of monotony I've ever heard.

Predictably I'd say Children of God because it feels like the keystone to me. But there's nothing I don't like. Their extremes don't seem so far apart, really. There's a dryness that connects the Noise and the Gothic tendencies, and a continual interest in all the expressive possibilities of sound/noise/music. Even the fiercest stuff has a sense of control. Hell, their entire career is about that tension, balancing on the edge of something that would probably be wrong.

Children of God

do you see a pattern emerging? maybe you should try children of god?

cop is good but filth is better.

or if you really want to dive deep into the depths: public castration is a good idea

the best of the early stuff is the Raping a Slave EP, that thing has the best bass sound they ever got

really if the world had switched over entirely from albums to EPs around that time, Swans would have become the masters of everything 'cause on the evidence of that EP alone, they had the form DOWN

really if the world had switched over entirely from albums to EPs around that time, Swans would have become the masters of everything

Same is true of the Birthday Party and Butthole Surfers and Killdozer and Live Skull and Pussy Galore and so on. In that era, bands were trying to be as intense as possible, and it was a lot easier to sustain for 25 minutes, rather than 40. At least albums had two sides then.

I started with the "Cop/Young God/Greed/Holy Money" reissue and picked up the "Filth/Body to Body, Job to Job" set after that. "Public Castration is a Good Idea" is a total bulldozer, too.

I only started listening to their later stuff a bit more recently, after being kind of turned off by some of the material on the "Various Failures" compilation, though I've warmed up to a lot of it since then... After hearing that early stuff, it was pretty jarring to pick up an album with a cover of "Love Will Tear us Apart" on it... 'Course the missing link was the many-times-aforementioned "Children of God," after hearing which made the later stuff make more sense.

bendy OTM! I sure did love EPs

Avoid the album with that song about the Yum-Yab Killers or whatever the fuck it was. Jarboe is embarrassing.

This thread is awesome for making me sit here and listen to a bunch of Swans albums. Unfortunately, I'm no closer to an answer to the thread question, unless "all of them" is acceptable. Leaning towards "Children of God", tentatively.

(Matt, if that rules out "Soundtracks for the Blind", I think you are RONG.)

You have to admit that song was a misfire.

Maybe, but the rest of that album is great.

cast another vote for 'love of life'. oh man. when i was 18, i went through a period where all i listened to was swans 'love of life,' 'burning world' and bauhaus' 'the sky's gone out', i think. i was pretty depressed at the time. anyway, it was one of the defining records of my teenage angst-hood that i would still listen to today, and i have a lot of residual fondness for it.

Soundtracks for the Blind was an awesome enough introduction for me.

Filth

and picked up the "Filth/Body to Body, Job to Job" set after that.

is great. Good showcase of two (not wildly) different periods.

What everyone said. (I think all my AMG reviews need rewriting but I go one about most of the albums there. Suffice to say, just dive in.)

yeah, probably children of god. though I have a certain fondness for a lot of the live versions of their catalogue featured on swans are dead. the version of blood on your hands particularly. but let's face it you're going to end up getting it all anyway so I wouldn't worry too much about which you pick up and just grab the first one you find.

This thread has made me realise the ONLY Swans album I've listened to is Children of God! Which is indeed v good. I need to get some of their earlier stuff, now.

If you like the "Children of God" material, the "Feel Good Now" live album is a pretty good document.

I think this has come up elsewhere, but probably worth mentioning here (and I, like some above, prefer Feel Good Now to CoG). The vinyl version has an extra track or two, and the sequencing on the two CD issues is different.

lol @ this old thread of mine

i am seeing SWANS LIVE TONIGHT YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

dress lightly!

why.....?

i mean i know it's loud & punishing or whatever but

they were requesting that all a/c ventilation in the venue be turned off for the show

outdoor venue :)

great show btw, setlist v similar to 2010 tour

I think their best era wasn't documented at the time. The band that cut Children Of God toured in '88 playing material that later appeared on the next few lps, The Burning World, white Light from the Mouth, & Love of Life.

It was extremely heavy folk rock stuff. The best way to hear is to try to find bootlegs of the era. & I think Jarboe's site sells cdrs of a lot of live stuff. Certainly used to, not sure if it still does.

Outside of that I'd suggest the first lp Filth which is more abrasive than Cop. Or live material from roughly that period.

Very interesting to see Gira appearing in Brendan Mullen's Live at The Masque photobook onstage in '79. That was before he took off for NYC

My favorite is Public Castration but I haven't heard nearly all of them. It's hard for me to imagine another Swans release being more intense, because It's kind of hard to imagine any music more intense.

i haven't heard (found!) public castration yet :(

swans releases are so tough to come across—guess i'm lucky though, i think i've found like 9-10 older ones over 3 years, just picking em up as i see em

Yeah they are hard to find; I have mp3s of it.

Is there any kind of definitive Swans box set? Would be interested in checking that out even though I have a few Swans discs in the collection.

no boxset, closest are the CD rereleases gira packaged together - cop/young god/greed/holy money, children of god/world of skin, filth/body to body, job to job

Raping A Slave, light and breezy listening