Swans Albums Ranked (including The Beggar)
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- Опубліковано 20 лип 2023
- Swans are (probably) the greatest band ever, with no two albums sounding the same in their career (which has spanned over 40 years). This video ranks ALL studio albums, live albums and EPs from all incarnations of Swans. It's a long one!
For a "discography retrospective" style video of Swans' studio albums (up to 2016), check out Deep Cuts' video on Swans:
• A Guide to SWANS
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Rabbit guy: loneliness, longing, desire, depression. The two burning rabbits together: Found a match, and now you suffer with another person. There is no respite. Life is misery, and misery loves company. That's just my take, from seeing the two album covers.
This is a perfect take, thank you
Wow that makes a lot of sense actually
Amazing
@@SamantherPanther love your profile pic lol
i’m sorry but the great annihilator that low is unforgivable
literally made my jaw drop with that placement
I saw them on the tour when 'Public Castration...' was recorded. It was so packed people could not move and there were people screaming for them to stop, people were crying. It was INSANELY loud and it was almost too much...BTW, I think the track 'Greed' is just beautiful. Melts my heart still.
Damn that sounds absolutely horrible hahaha
Discovering Swans redefined, for me at least, what "heavy" meant in regards to music. Excellent video!
I had a very similar experience. And thank you for the kind words!
Swans can strum the same chord for 5 minutes and it's heavier that anything that any 'extreme metal' band can even conceive of.
Early Swans music is absolutely insane. Two drummers and two bass guitarists. Crazy set up.
Late comment, but I interviewed Michael Gira during the Burning World/Love Will Tear Us Apart period, and he was SUPER defensive and combative. We were with college radio, and he kept accusing us of loving REM for some reason. I asked him why, and he was, like, "Well, what do YOU listen to?" and was shocked when I replied, "Right now, mostly Nurse with Wound and Prince." When I asked if the Joy Division cover was a conscious attempt to have a hit, he went ballistic. And, of course, later on he admitted it was true, LOL. God, he was so awful, LOL. It was so disappointing because we were all Swans fans. Jarboe was lovely.
Thank you for sharing this story, this is hilarious but perhaps only so in hindsight. I know he has a reputation - or had, maybe - so I’m not at all surprised at this. Cheers! 😀
Nurse With Wound/Prince collab album would've been tuff
@@boardsofwood It's so hard to imagine exactly what form it would take!
Swans have somehow changed their sound to an unimaginable degree, but always maintained extreme intensity. It's an amazing accomplishment.
I've never got into swans, but I know their early stuff was a massive influence on one of my favourite bands godflesh. I'll have to give swans a proper listen.
Definitely - the parallels between Filth, Cop, even the Young God EP and earlier Godflesh are really easy to see, especially Self Titled and Streetcleaner. Godflesh are one of my favourite bands too!
Yeah you should definitely give the early albums a try. That's what I did. After that fell in love with all of their stuff and I hope you will too! Two important things: patience and relistening.
The first Godflesh EP and Cop are very similar.
I love the Burning World, no matter it‘s reputation. After 34 year the album deserves to be rehabilitated and recognized as a classic
I absolutely loved what you said about 'Swans Are Dead', captured absolutely everything I feel about that album
Hey! You’re the guy that uploaded the old Radical Face stuff!
Really appreciated the time and effort put into this. Quality ranking
Found you through the Death In June videos, glad to see this video, good work. Love Swans.
Awesome! Cheers for dropping by!
@@linesinwax4996 Shit my pants at The Great Annihilator ranking lmao
Hugely enjoying these reviews. Hard to encapsulate their vast catalog so kudos for the time and effort.
It was a fun one to do but I was exhausted by the end haha
01. To be kind
02. The Seer
03. The Glowing Man
04. Soundtracks for the Blind
05. White Light from the Mouth from Infinity
06. The great Annihalator
07. The Beggar
08. Leaving meaning
09. Children of God
10. My Father will guide me
11. Filth
12. Love of Life
13. Greed
14. Cop
15. Holy Money
16. The Burning World
… just a try 😊. But the Top 10 should be correct.
Incredible video, it's clear you put an immense amount of effort into it. I don't agree with your ranking at all lol, but I feel like I can find a new appreciation for some of my less loved Swans albums and feel inspired to go listen to some of the live stuff I have compiled. Hope this video blows up and godspeed!
Thank you!
That’s the beauty of Swans, I bet no two rankings are anywhere near the same.
I’m glad you liked the video either way and thank you for the kind words!
Great video!
Great Ranking, well done man!
Thank you! Cheers for watching such a long video
I love how the higher up you get along the list, the more you drop the f bomb. Just goes to show how words can’t do the music of Swans any justice ^^
Great video! Really makes me want to check out more live albums by them. Kinda skipped that part of their discography so far. But I definitely would have put the Beggar higher. Maybe that’s partially due to me being relatively new to Swans (since To Be Kind I’m aware of them) idk but I think it’s so heartfelt and the Death theme gives it such a monumental weight to me, much more than leaving meaning for sure.
You’re absolutely right, I definitely started to struggle for words the more this one went on hahaha
If you like “modern” swans you absolutely gotta listen to Deliquescence. I promise you that you will love it. It’s on YT but I’m sure you can get a better quality version off SLSK (or drop $100 on a CD version lol)
@@linesinwax4996 I dropped £100 last week on it. Hurt, but Swans is like a drug. I have to have it. I'm slowly collecting all the live releases on CD, no matter the cost.
Another great video.Keep up the hard work dude
Thank you very much!
Still here at 1h40:14secs, breathtaking personally list... guess I'm a Swans novice cuz only got their The Great Annihilation and Swans Are Dead record upon release in the 90's and watched a lot of their crazy 80's live footage. A weird fascination I got for Swans.
My favourite album of theirs is The Seer, while favourite track is either Bring The Sun, or Helpless Child. The former literally would give me out of body experiences, as if I'm grasping and hearing something greater than life itself, probably sounds pretentious af, but it is what it is. It's truly indescribable how good that song is. Helpless child just hits too hard, the lyrics especially. "you drug me with kindness so I can pretend I exist". God damn it.
Loved the video, thank you for giving your own thoughts and perspectives on this amazing band's work. It's my favourite music act as well, I usually don't tend to pick favourites when it comes to media, but Swans are just so above anything I've ever listened to (and I've got like 500-600 albums saved on spotify lol)
Superb heartfelt critique of Swans output.
Great video mate. Really enjoyed your analysis and takes. Not all I agree with but is subjectively justified very well. Subscribed.
Thank you very much!
Great video. You did Great Annihilator so dirty 😢😂
I don't get how it's their one of the most accessible albums. It was one of last Swans studio albums I got into and now it's in my top 5 😢
Great video, really really loved it! I also kinda see what you mean with the Great Annihilator slander, I personally love the album but it being an accessible easy-to-follow goth rock album does take away what makes Swans great in the first place, it honestly doesn’t even sound like them half the time.
Great Video, man. Gonna see them live tomorrow for the 2nd time this year.
How are they these days? I didn’t manage to catch them on the Beggar tour (the south west UK date was a festival date and didn’t want to see anyone else so it seemed like a waste of money)
Last time I saw them was with Paul Wallfisch (sp) on keyboards for the “final tour”
@@linesinwax4996 They are stunningly great. They sit down now and play a different set-up as they used to. There is still the sonic force behind it but the feel to is is less physical more..... transcendental. god that sounds pretentious but yeah music is hard to describe sometimes.
I am very excited to see them twice in a year with roughly 6 months between the shows, how the songs evolved and maybe there is something new. Hopefully a Live CD?! Btw to make you jealous: I got the Deliquescence Album from the 2017 Tour. hahahahaha
I won’t blame them for sitting down, Michael is getting up there in years!
And transcendental is absolutely a valid word. It’s Swans!
Very nice on the Deliquescence front! You seem very appreciative of Swans music so I do not envy the fact you have it - it has a good home! I do need to do something about that Deliquescence situation though. It’s one of my favourite albums ever and I don’t own it.
@@linesinwax4996 I wanted to wait with my answer to you til I´ve seen them live yesterday. I can repeat myself in saying that they are still absolutely stellar. The set has changed quite a bit since I´ve caught them last time almost 6 moths ago; it became even more pastoral, droning, otherworldly. Maybe it was also because the venue was an old church repurposed as a concert venue. The "groove" parts are less present but if they hit they HIT!
I think sitting down had a huge influence on the sound and presentation of the music, it´s definitely an age thing but it also is a stylistic choice I´d say.
Btw now I own a signed copy of Deliquescence haha! I also brought a bunch of other vintage records -mostly from the Holy Money phase - to the show to get them signed. I have almost every album of them now on record or CD (also World of Skin and Angels of Light stuff) and most of it is signed. So yeah, I´m slightly "appreciative of Swans music" 🤣 (Btw because of your video I re-listened to omniscience. Since that phase isn´t my fav of their catalogue this album was ignored by me for a long time and I wanted to thank you for reminding me.)
Also I hope you find a copy of Deliquescence and keep dropping vids!
Very enjoyable vid, thanks
Thank you for watching!
I'm grateful you included the live releases. Omniscience was my gateway into Swans.
That’s very interesting! It seems to be mostly not talked about when it comes to the work of Swans.
Seeing them live in Chicago earlier this month + this video finally got me to get around to the rest of their live albums. Previously, I’d only listened to Public Castration, Anonymous Bodies and Swans Are Dead.
I’m so glad I finally did because The Gate and Deliquescence are fucking amazing and strengthens my enjoyment of The Glowing Man. I greatly look forward to the next live release they’re gonna do, as I’d love to really relive the set that I saw and blew me away.
damn UA-cam. lol. had to catch up on all your vids since the black Sabbath one. hopefully watching all those in the past three days will put you back in my algorithm.
Hello!
I’ve no clue how this algorithm business works at all but I am very glad to have you back :D
Excellent video from a real fan about the formidable task of ranking Swans albums! And I can't resist my Swans top 10:
1. Red Velvet Corridor (Soundtracks For The Blind 1996)
2. Feel Happiness (Swans Are Dead 1998)
3. Killing For Company (The Great Annihilator 1995)
4. Eden Prison (My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky 2010)
5. Just A Little Boy (To Be Kind 2014)
6. Annaline (Leaving Meaning 2019)
7. Screen Shot (To Be Kind 2014)
8. Helpless Child (Swans Are Dead 1998)
9. Avatar (The Seer 2012)
10. The Cloud Of Unknowing (The Glowing Man 2016)
Swans Epics: Special mention - Great but due to their length I don’t play often.
1. Blood Promise (Swans Are Dead 1998)
2. Frankie M (The Glowing Man 2016)
3. Bring The Sun/Toussaint L'Ouverture (To Be Kind 2014)
30 minute + epic only Swans could get away with!
Cheers Tony!
Interesting to see Red Velvet Corridor in your top ten!
@@linesinwax4996 That song has an insane atmosphere! Gives me an eldritch vibe. Would probably be in my top ten as well
I watched your death in june video a while ago and enjoyed it, but you just got a sub from me for your love of the swans
Thank you!
Just discovered your channel good luck with gaining subs
Thank you!
Good video, I haven't really listened to a lot of the older heavier albums apart from Filth but I fucking love their newer stuff. You've made me pretty interested to listen to Deliquescence now so I'll try and listen to it, there's uploads on youtube but I'm guessing the quality's not gonna be great
With the price of the cd being so high YT or something like soulseek is going to be your only option unfortunately:(
@@linesinwax4996 I ended up listening to it on youtube and yeah it was pretty amazing. The Knot is the longest song I've ever heard so far and it was great the whole way through. Then the rest of the album was incredible as well
Swans is a difficult band for me to categorise / rank as their output seems both incredibly insular and yet incredibly all-encompassing simultaneously. It's like their music exists in its own universe, and yet it transmits a very basic truth about our own reality. That truth being that the only thing that matters is the moment, and being within it. The past doesn't matter, it doesn't exist anymore. The future doesn't matter, it doesn't exist yet. Only 'now' matters, and life is best lived when 'now' is milked for all its worth.
I look forward to watching this video in its entirety. Before I've seen a single minute of it, I know what releases of theirs have impacted the most, and I'm curious to hear about someone else's perspective.
EDIT: just finished the whole thing, fantastic video. We share the #1 pick, that album is beyond this universe.
Thank you very much for your excellent insights and also for your kind words. I glad you enjoyed the video.
Glowing man club forever!
Good top pick. The Glowing Man is easily the best of "new" Swans. I'm fairly biased toward their pre-hiatus stuff, probably because that's what I grew up with, but I need to re-explore their more recent material.
I know this video is months old, but I saw swans live in St. Louis a few weeks ago and they played the hanging man, it was stunning. I hope you got to hear it live
Thanks for the comment! Alas, I have still not seen them since this video!
Really loved this video and going into the live albums and EPs!
I recently finally did a deep listen of my own (Havent heard everything but have heard a lot). Here is my ranking that I have posted on AOTY. I am very much more a fan of their modern sound:
1. The Seer (My introduction to Swans and honestly just always have stuck with me)
2. To Be Kind
3. Soundtracks For The Blind
4. Deliquescence
5. The Glowing Man
6. The Gate
7. The Beggar
8. Swans Are Dead
9. The Great Annihilator
10. Omniscience
11. Children of God
12. Leaving Meaning
13. Not Here/Not Now
14. White Light from the Mouth of Infinity
15. We Rose From Your Bed With the Sun in Our Head
16. Die Tur Izt Zu
17. My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky
18. Public Castration Is A Good Idea
19. Holy Money
20. Filth
21. Young God EP
22. Greed
23. Swans EP
24. Anonymous Bodies in an Empty Room
25. Love of Life
26. Feel Good Now
27. Kill the Child
28. Love of Life/Amnesia (Ep? Single?)
29. The Burning World
30. A Scew Ep
31. Cop
32. Oxygen EP
33. Time Is Money (Bastard)
34. Real Love
Great stuff man. Feel the same way about Soundtracks for the Blind, it's such a unique album I feel it's impossible to describe really
Thank you!
Tbh I’m shocked this video is as long as it is, I find a lot of swans stuff impossible to describe lol
Cheers for watching :) I really appreciate it
Do you have any thoughts on Angels Of Light? And if so are you planning on making a video on that band at some point?
That’s a brilliant idea.
I love Angels of Light, I should probably do a retrospective on them seeing as the project seems very much dead now.
New Mother and How I Loved You are just incredible.
This video is nearly as long as some Swans albums.
Edit: Ty for the heart! This comment also implied that your video is cool and I appreciate the effort and respect the opinions presented. :)
I totally agree with you on the glowing man.
I am just happy that The Burning World wasn't your least favorite studio album.
Do you have a spotify? Im really into your music taste and i was wondering that if you had like playlists or something like that on any music platforms
Hey cheers for asking, I do use Spotify but I don’t have any playlists or anything like that, sorry! :)
Good ranking, I really like “Burning World”, I would have ranked it a bit higher.
You and I must be on the same wavelength... Glowing Man is my favorite album of theirs as well.
Bro. Are you Platinum Chasers?! I was watching your Type O Negative videos and I'm like there's no way this isn't the same person!
Haha - I’ve never heard of the channel I had to look it up. That was pretty funny.
I see what you mean. But Platinum Chasers sounds like he’s from the Midlands perhaps, in England - I’m from Wales, so our accents are a bit different. I see the similarities though lol
Some notes while I happily wade though this when I can-
1- Great Annihilator is a fine album, but it's easily one of the more accessible Swans album. I like it but it's def not my favorite. Killing for Company is a banger, though.
2- I'm not a fan of Leaving Meaning. It's ok but not a big fan at all. To be fair, it would be hard for anything to follow up The Seer and the two that followed it.
3- Filth is my number one, followed closely by White Light. I usually don't prefer deluxe editions, but had to get it with Filth. Sensitive Skin is a must.
4- A respectable listing. I'll admit I have not listened to much of their live recordings. I'll start delving into those. Man, this must've been quite an effort. I put Swans in the same general category as Nurse With Wound. Not everyone gets it and it's a heck of a thick group to get into, but worth it in the end.
Glowing Man keeps growing on me. Amazing album!
Finally peace is on my personal funeral music too.
Good choice!
My friend's mom called SWANS "evil ooze music." I've been hooked ever since.
Love SWANS
For me it's clearly 1 To be Kind, 2 The Seer, 3 The Glowing man. You are absolutely with what you said about Glowing man and actually I would say also it's their best. But at the end there's this one song that's probably their worst song of their post reunion era, and forgive me, but it's Frankie M. I hate this song. I really really hate it. It destroys the perfection of the album so much. And I can't even say why I hate it, but I really hate it.
And I would rank Leaving Meaning much higher. As you said, the Glowing man is the essence of their whole work. And it was ready to close this chapter, because I couldn't imagine how to go on this way just one more step foreward. And LM is the best possible way to move on on a different path without ignoring where Swans came from. And of course Sunfucker and Hanging man are two of Swans best songs ever.
I was a teenie in the 80ies and I know Swans from a german radio show that played once a week great independent, punk, industrial, postpunk, music. And the first Swans Songs I heard, were from their brutal phase. I don't know exactly which ones but I loved it and I loved the outstanding power which they had. When the Jarboe/Piano phase started, I was done with the band. I didn't know anything about their 90ies releases. And when Gira reunited Swans 2010 I was blown away by their new album. That was the time when I had a first listen to Soundtracks and Dead. And that blew me away.
Thanks for sharing your insights :)
One thing i want to say about Not Here/Not Now is that the rendition of Coward on there kicks unreal amounts of ass and might be my favorite version of the song
Edit: WTF THAT LONG VERSION OF LOVE OF LIFE IS INCREDIBLE WHY IS IT NOT ON THE ALBUM???
I find it hard to give a ranked list but my favorite albums of theirs are The Seer, Filth, White Light, The Great Annihilator, and Soundtracks.
Edit: Sorry I can't resist TGA, it doesn't stick the landing but dammit the rest of the album before that is too good
You’re right that version of Coward is BRUTAL. I saw them live on that tour and even in amongst all The Seer material they were playing it stood out like a sore thumb. I know they are always a forward thinking band and that line up is done now but it does make me wish they played more of their “old” songs.
Edit: spelling
The Seer #1 To Be kind #2 Glowing Man #3 Soundtracks for the Blind #4 White light #5, the rest I don't care for. That's me. I don't find The Seer exhausting in the least, it's one of the most cathartic and therapeutic albums I've ever heard. As it To Be Kind, but not quite as much.
Very good list, although I personally disagree with the leaving meaning and the beggar placements. They are some of my favorites. Definitely top 10 for me.
Love of life
They're my favorite too :]
Specifically clicked on this hoping to hear someone else gush about The Great Annihilator, hahaha
Lmao I’m so sorry 😅
Personally I think Die Tur Ist Zu is great! The German version of All Lined Up is especially spine chilling. Ligeti's Breath / Hilflos Kind is also really good.
missing here the 12' version of "love will tear us apart" ⚡️⚡️📣
You’re right - I should have included it. I tried collecting all of the different versions a long time ago and it was very confusing as there’s so many pressings haha
Think the only one I ended up getting was the red 7” which was the Gira version
This vid is about as long as the average swans album
I’ve just only recently realized that Greed is superior to Holy Money. I used to not like greed but loved holy money. Recently greed finally clicked and I prefer it so much more over holy money now
dude, where can i find ''the gate''?
I have the CD but as it’s totally out of print and impossible to find at a reasonable price I’d start with slsk
I listen to a lot of music but for the love of me I can't seem to "get" swans: I can't get a grasp of their records (I've tried their best rated), and despite my love for minimalism the songs seem to go on and on without much of an objective? Idk. My best experience so far was with soundtrack for the blind and Lunacy from the seer.
I'll keep on trying though that's for sure
I get it - I've got a few bands like that. Godspeed You Black Emperor is a good example. I just don't get it.
Swans is especially difficult though because it all sounds a bit different, album to album. Have you tried any of the 80s stuff? The songs tend to be more conventional lengths rather than ridiculously long, but are just as if not more punishing.
Love both gy!be and swans. I think swans is far from minimalism. Even though swans are more than post rock, post rock can be hard to get into. Especially for younger people. I'm in my late 30's and 25 year old me would not understand or appreciate gy!be or swans. Too much "regular" music to go through before getting into these "tougher" acts.
I enjoy more listening to people talking about Swans then actually listen to most of Swans albums 😂
Couldn't disagree more of your opinions on The Great Annihilator. One of my personal favorites for sure. Totally respect your opinions though and I think the beauty of Swans is that everyone will have different opinions on it all!
Thank you! There’s just so much Swans and it’s all different, so this kind of thing is inevitable.
I love a few songs on Great Annihilator but overall I think it's meh. I don't get why it's such a fan favorite.
Dude first swans ep rocks
took a lot of strength not to click off the video when u put the great annihilator where you did
Lmao
Thank you for sticking with it
@@linesinwax4996 the rest i almost entirely agree with. no wave era swans really is just something else and im glad all the post filth- pre cog stuff wasnt all thrown towards the bottom like i often see
It took me a while to get it. Children of God actually clicked . Gothy. Kinda of Jazzy , heavy . Sums up that Beautiful Creature with a violent temperament statement Gira made of why he called his band “swans”
I've always thought Love of Life is very underrated tbh. Not as great as White Light, but still solid.
1 - To Be Kind
2 - The Glowing Man
3 - Children of God
4 - The Great Annihilator
5 - Soundtracks for the Blind
6 - White Light from the Mouth of Infinity
7 - The Seer
8 - Filth
9 - Young God (Ep)
10 - Greed
Switch 3 and 7
My favorite band too. Absolutely love them. S*x god s*x is my favorite song
Sex god sex is definitely up there with the best of the best. The “second part” of that song is just incredible.
Do you like current 93?
I do but I’ve only heard Dogs Blood Rising and Thunder Perfect Mind - I need to get into some more records
Do you have any recommendations?
@@linesinwax4996 Oh man. My favorites are Aleph at Hallucinatory Mountain, Lucifer Over London, Hypnagogue...I could go on, I can't pick less than ten favorites. But those are all great. Thunder Perfect Mind tends to be acclaimed as their best, and I do like it, but I'm not as crazy about it as I am others.
I'd never heard of Current 93, but I just checked out Aleph at Hallucinatory Mountain, and damn. What a great album @@haleywilson520
I've started "If a City is set upon a Hill," can't really get into it. Maybe something heavier....
14:01 didnt expect annihilator to be this low... i dont even want to imagine how bad the list is going to be lmao byeeee
We the listeners of such an infuencial band as the Swans have the right to our oppinion/insight about their records, but in the case of this ranking i might say that it is a pity that 'My father...' or 'The great annihilator' are in such low positions. 'Greed' and 'Holy Money' should also be on higher places.
Glad that 'Children of God' is on top, but this one is just one of the best records ever made in the history of popular music.
Strong welsh accent
Good ranking until you put the great annihilator that low
I'll keep watching, but putting Love of Life on the ass-end of things is a red flag.
Edit: Then next is Burning World? Wow. How is this your favorite band?
How is this my favourite band? Because I love their music more than any other artist.
I will give Swans another go after watching this. There is something very American sounding in their records that just feels out of place for some reason, maybe because I associate it with everything that USA stands for. It's like if PJ Harvey was American and had influences from there, it wouldn't be the same.
How on Earth White Light was left outside top ten is a mystery to me. By far the best Swans album of all times.
I'll concur on The Great Annihilator being their most approachable rock record. It's almost a shoegaze album, like it reminds me a lot of MBV oddly. I love it though! It was the first album of theirs that gave me an in, and honestly almost everything I've heard after is on par or better.
My top 5 would be Great Annihilator, The Glowing Man, The Seer, Children Of God, and Soundtracks For The Blind.
Jeez dude, go easy on the swearing. I'm not a prude, but it'll be much more enjoyable with much less of the "fucking". It doesn't help your eloquence. Otherwise a great video, I appreciated it ✌️
I didn't even notice.
@@awarewolves1712 Same, it's so incredibly strange to have someone being a snowflake about swearing on a video about something so dark and disturbing as Swans lol
The Great Annihilator needs waay more love tho...but to each their own. Fantastic band.
Love of life
the burning world
The Begger
We the listeners of such an infuencial band as the Swans have the right to our oppinion/insight about their records, but in the case of this ranking i might say that it is a pity that 'My father...' or 'The great annihilator' are in such low positions. 'Greed' and 'Holy Money' should also be on higher places.
Glad that 'Children of God' is on top, but this one is just one of the best records ever made in the history of popular music.