SWANS

This is a good Swans album. Well, I don't think Swans has made a truly great album since The Seer in 2012. That said, The Healers isn't a great album either. Swans has a vast discography that spans from excellent to mediocre, but they've usually managed to maintain a consistently high musical standard. Released in 2025, The Healers is the 17th studio album from this avant-garde band from New York.

In recent years, Swans has evolved into a more experimental ambient project, leaving behind the grand scale and intensity that once defined their sound something I personally don't appreciate as much. Their music now draws comparisons to Dead Can Dance, which isn't necessarily a bad direction, but it feels as though some of their former unpredictability and raw energy have been subdued. The last few albums tend to explore similar sonic territory, circling a meditative atmosphere that, while deliberate, can feel creatively static. Of course, Swans is still an avant-garde, experimental post-rock/punk band at heart, and this could be seen as part of an ongoing artistic search.

Looking back at their recent releases To Be Kind (2014), The Glowing Man (2016), Leaving Meaning (2019), and The Beggar (2023). Birthing may be the most immersive and focused of them all. It leans fully into ambient textures, with hypnotic melodies and rich sonic layers that pull the listener into new emotional territory for the band. It doesn't carry the same explosive force as their earlier work, but it opens a quieter, more introspective chapter that feels genuine.

Birthing is a good album. It's not what Swans has accustomed us to, but it's a rewarding and engaging listen. For those willing to embrace the band's ambient evolution, it has plenty to offer.

The soundscapes are as rich and varied as ever, with Birthing and (Rope)Away being standout tracks in an already impressive track list. I am a Tower and Red Yellow are more fun tracks in their sound, with Tower having a very groovy collection of progressions. Red Yellow has a very fun backing vocal track disorienting the listener from Gira's performance, which I honestly wish was a tiny bit longer. I was initially iffy on Healers but the track has grown on me with repeat listens. It's not a standout hit like Lunacy on Seer, but it's still good. The Merge is sonically delightfully bonkers, with device tampering getting injected into the soundscape.

As for the thematic content, the album is oddly enough about motherhood. This is very likely a callback to Soundtracks for the Blind, which dealt with maternal neglect from the pov of the child, along other depressing matters. This time around many of the tracks are sung from the mother's perspective, acknowledging their shortcomings and absence in their children's life. My read is that this is partially a way for Gira to confront and process his mother's alcoholism now that he's a parent himself. Considering this is Gira's last album as lead producer, the bookending parallel themes to Soundtracks are very appropriate.

While it's not as moving as the 2012-2016 albums, it's still a very worthwhile experience.

The soundscapes are very oppressive, with heavy droning and noise being poured down on the listener. This oppression is occasionally broken by more light tracks like "The Daugther brings the water", letting the listener recover for the next noise barrage. The soundscapes themselves are varied with their instruments, and at points more experimental sound sources get blended into the mix, like fire crackle or breathing.

Thematically The Seer can be summarized by the following; "Hatred of God". It's a bit more nuanced than that, but when boiled down it's the same old theme present in earlier Swans albums. This time the reflection is that humans are ravaging and defiling the earth with no remorse or care, and god is despicable for bringing such creatures into the world and letting them roam free. The Seer character is brought into a doomed world, despairs, and becomes an apostate that curses God.

The Seer is a very dear record for me. Even as it is filled spite and hatred for the world, I see it as an starting point for spiritual healing, and re-discovering the joys of life. This has mainly to do with the interviews Michael Gira has given after the album's release and the following live tour, as he seemed more optimistic after it. The Swans material following The Seer is also more light in comparison to it, not by much, but its noticeable. It's this contrast with the rest of the discography that makes me appreciate The Seer as much as I do, it's hate being a spiritual cleansing that prepares both the artist and the listener for a new, more honest begining.

The Beggar track is honestly the best track in the album, full stop. The version on the record isn't flawless (Michael has a slip up with his playing near the start), but it does so much right. As with most long Swans tracks, the rendition slowly climbs from progression to progression, while the musicians batter the listener's senses with fevor. Gira's vocal performance could be described as raving, which fits the torrent of sound just wonderfully. Even the portions where he starts shouting gutteral worldless howls, I find them more than appropriate.

Birthing was a song I had no real thoughts on after seeing the Tavastia show, so I was more than pleased to hear that it had evolved into a very distinct form. At points the blended sound of the guitars brings to mind cold shifting waters, which is followed by a wonderfuly torturous guitar solo by Pravdica (I believe, but I could be wrong). The rest of the tracks weren't as notable as Beggar and Birthing, but were still more than pleasant to listen through. The tracks that were present on earlier studio albums succeeded in being distinct from their earlier appearances, and at points managed to be a better version of the track, like with The Hanged Man (remember to fill your bingo card on spot "live Hanged Man is better").

The only real issue with the album is the fact that you can no longer purchase the un-cut rendition directly from YGR. Unlike the earlier crowdfunding albums, Swans has decided to continue selling Live Rope after the fundraising was completed. However, the only available option is the 2x CD version, which has some segments cut down in order to fit the tracks on the discs. I personally bought the Vinyl+CD+digital wav package, and based on listening to the different versions, the full version is the best. The CD version is still very much worth it, even more so if you liked the 2010-2016 Swans material, but just keep in mind that it's not ideal.

This is folkier than I was expecting, with nary a trace of what I would anticipate from highbrow math rock or the documented clout on metal purported of SWANS. Of course, in and of itself this is a plus for me, and on "The River that Runs with Love Won't Run Dry",the MOODY BLUES ish "Mona LIsa Mother Earth, and the poignant "Universal Emptiness" and "God Damn the Sun", Gira's tendency to help us to heaping spoonful upon spoonful of angst is at its peak. Most of the rest offers satisfying glimpses of his dissatisfaction blended with the musical drudgery that is just the wrong side of the tracks from his stock in trade. It's a balancing act handled well but not spectacularly so. Gira's voice is a plus throughout and his level of decline over the next decade and a half is shocking

"Burning World" is a solid collection with sparks aplenty but which doesn't ignite nearly enough to warrant classic status.

By 1986 SWANS was starting to evolve past its origins out of the no wave scene that briefly took New York City by storm and was splintering off into new arenas of experimentalism. While many of these groups would simply just fade away after leaving their mark, SWANS was one of the few to continue on to the present day by constantly reinventing itself without losing that initial impetus of making bleak noisy minimalism. One of the first significant changes emerged on this short EP (some call it a single) titled TIME IS MONEY (BASTARD) / SEALED IN SKIN.

This marked the debut of Jarboe who had left the swamps of Louisiana to engage in the world of experimental rock and stage music in New York City. She had been a fan of SWANS since the "Filth" album and contacted Michael Gira who recognized the band needed to move past its origins and evolve into something completely new. This EP / single features three tracks. TIME IS MONEY finds the band jumping into the world of industrial rock in the vein of Come, early Big Black and Alien Sex Fiend only SWANS retained the bleakness and dread of its no wave albums "Filth" and "Cop."

The second track SEALED IN SKIN features a slowed down return to the no wave form only less abrasive without the guitar distortion and grunge that made the first two albums so abrasive. This track finds Gira's vocals sound like a moaning mummy as he monotonously bellows baritone vocals alongside a monotonous dirge-like motif that offers little variation from in terms of musicality. The EP / single ends with a remix of TIME IS MONEY (BASTARD) which features a beefed up percussion and more echoey guitar presence. Not as industrial sounding as the first track but offers a glimpse of what Alien Sex Fiend would adopt as its sound once it evolved out of its deathrock routine.

At this point Jarboe's duties were limited to merely screaming on the album but it helped her establish a connection with the band that would allow her to expand her own musical talents and ideas into the world of SWANS. Of course this band, especially the earlier 80s releases are an acquired taste that many find too harsh, too monotonous or just too weird but personally i find the magic is in the hypnotic effect of the bleak tones and timbres, the mesmerizing rhythms and the simplistic procession of it all. It's an entirely different way of perceiving music but one that ultimately works to a satisfying level for my ears. Gira did an excellent job of nudging SWANS along into new arenas and not just jumping headfirst into a new style completely. These songs never appeared on any SWANS album so you have to hunt these down separately but i personally find these as essential as any of the earliest caustic SWANS releases.

It was also a fruitful time of rediscovery as the GREED / Holy Money recording sessions that lasted from June 1985 - January 1986 produced enough material to release not one but two albums in '86 and then the year was topped off with a massive tour and the first SWANS live release "Public Castration Is a Good Ideal." But wait! THere's more! The band ended the year with yet another EP titled "A Screw." It was the year of the dollar sign since every one of these releases featured a prominently artistic variation of the $ sign all of which signified the biggest changes in the entire history of the band's long run as an established experimental rock act. Together these $ releases seemed to collectively express a total disdain for the world of power and wealth obtained through the financial fraud the world has been overtaken by.

GREED was the first album to emerge after the "Time Is Money" single and therefore the first album to feature Jarboe as a permanent member of the band only this time her backing vocals are more prominent than mere background screaming. Her wordless vocals provide a new form of instrumentation to add to the overall depressive atmosphere of GREED which found the band shedding its no wave origins and blossoming into a strange no wave / industrial rock hybrid. Fortified by two bassists and THREE drummers, GREED is percussion dominated powerhouse that finds SWANS moving on from the caustic guitar driven angst of the first two albums and instead finding a new form of depressive despair as its main emotional outlet.

Brilliantly continuing the essential aspects of no wave that avoid melodic motifs like the plague, GREED maintains that abstract detached feel of the first two albums only adds implied melodies carried out through atonality and dissonance. The plodding percussive drives make this album sound like a funeral procession and i wouldn't be surprise if funeral doom metal was inspired by this stage of SWANS' career. GREED is a rather bleak affair with seven tracks that add up to almost 38 minutes of nihilistic and ominous repetitive processions through some of the darkest musical tones and timbres you can experience. The album has been compared to a bizarre religious cult ritual soundtrack but i find it more like a form of oozing anarchy.

The opening "Fool" offers something completely new to the SWANS playbook, namely a demented piano that does indeed offer a somewhat melodic approach however this tactic restrains itself and allows the cyclical loops to let the dark atmospheres to play around. Gira's vocals have moved on from raging angst to a more contemplative and depressive tone. His droning vocal style of yore actually sings on this opening track and thus the new SWANS is born however the opening track only ushers in the new era as the album continues in a similarly minimalist approach that the no wave years employed. The album also features samples, tape operations and other sound effects as well as Jarboe's blood curdling baking vocals and the aforementioned piano parts.

The name of the game with GREED is pure dissonance and atonal counterpoints that all conspire to craft one disturbing melancholic march through complete musical alienation and sparseness. The incessant flow of percussive beats on steroids is punctuated by moments of silence, the abrasive guitar and bass lines that accompany and the contrapuntal effect of Gira's downer vocal style along with Jarboe's nails on the chalkboard vocal approach. The album is incessant in how it ratchets up the tension until the more caustic than thou grand finale "Money Is Flesh" which just pummels away with staccato tom drumming and atonal guitar freakery. This is true industrial bleakness bliss! This particular track sounds unique compared to the others as it has some sort of bellowing sample sound that wails away.

While many consider this period one of SWANS' weakest, i have to say that i love this album quite a bit as it delves into some of the most barren soundscapes possible and yet finds ways to subtly offer some of the weirdest and strangest alienating results. While the angst had been channeled to despair, it makes a full comeback by the end of the album and it ends with a barren bang. So many adjectives can describe GREED: discouraging, bleak, dismal, gloomy, hopeless, dreary, sombre, raw, desolate, harsh, severe but most of all this album is tempestuous as it has an unresolved uneasiness about it that works so well! Obviously this sort of extremity is an acquired taste and i have no idea how i acquired it but if you accept what the band is going for on its own terms then you can't deny that SWANS did an absolutely excellent job of conveying what it aimed for. You may not like it but you can't deny that the results of its sweltering banter is not effective in what it sets out to achieve which i guess is engage is musical sado-masochism!

The "Greed" and HOLY MONEY sessions were fruitful and yielded two albums worth of material. The first studio album of 1986 was "Greed" which found the band slowly morphing from the caustic noisy no wave abrasiveness to a more diverse array of stylistic approaches that incorporated more instrumentation, focus on the atmospheres rather than brutality and the debut of vocalist Jarboe who would stick around for several albums and add a feminine touch to the testosterone fueled rage-fest that the no wave albums exuded with abundance. HOLY MONEY was basically the double album companion that was released a month after "Greed" and ratcheted up the band's evolution a few more notches. This album was the first to find Jarboe contributing lead vocals on "You Need Me" as well as offering the first taste of acoustic moments such as on the near 8-minute track "Another You," however even this track is noisy and dissonant as water is wet.

While still retaining the bleak dirge-like processions of "Greed," HOLY MONEY also featured fleeting elements from the blues by adding select harmonica moments as well as allowing more contrapuntal elements to accrue for a greater atmospheric approach. While the opening "A Hanging" exhibits a throwback to the no wave era, "A Screw (Holy Money)" offers a more pure industrial rock approach only set to the doomy gloomy monotony that SWANS had made all its own. Michael Gira delivers a similar vocal approach to "Greed" with a dreadful downtuned moaning style that borders on mumbling and mimicking a mummy from some Hollywood film. In tandem all the elements on board keep the dissonant and atonalities humming along with jangly guitar chords sustaining over thunderous percussive and bass drives.

On many tracks it sounds like no wave style of SWANS has totally merged with some of the industrial rock bands of the 80s such as Foetus, Big Black, Helios Creed or even Einstürzende Neubauten. Far from accessible, the changes on HOLY MONEY compared to "Greed" are subtle and minor additions but nevertheless showcase a whole plethora of new approaches that would allow SWANS to emerge from its cocoon and emerge as the butterfly that it would become on the following "Children Of God" which found the band coming of age as a totally newly reincarnated act. Basically HOLY MONEY is a companion album to "Greed" and the two have since been released together albeit with track order differences. There is nothing on HOLY MONEY that will convert SWANS haters if the idea of caustic dissonant and molasses slow dirging processions aren't your bailiwick.

This is some of the bleakest musical expressions ever to have emerged and SWANS had knack for delivering the goods in a way that kept the no wave detachment relevant all the while crafting a more post-rock generated delivery system. Personally i love this caustic stew of creative torture. It's totally unique and even though these transition albums seem to be some of the least loved albums in the vast canon of the world of SWANS, i find them endearing and just as relevant as the no wave albums that proceed as well as the more ambitious art rock sounds that follow. A niche market for sure but for those who have acquired the taste, HOLY MONEY is a beastly delectable morsel of experimental industrial / no wave brilliance.

PUBLIC CASTRATION IS A GOOD IDEA was recorded on the "Greed" and "Holy Money" tour from performances in London and Nottingham, England. While originally released as an indie bootleg, the recordings were approved by SWANS and thus officially became its first live album and self-released however it wouldn't be until 1999 that the Thirsty Ear label would finally release the album on CD form. This one is a lengthy beast that despite featuring only eight tracks takes up 74 minutes of playing time. Like the albums, SWANS toured with a guitarist, bassist and THREE drummers! The percussive bombast at this stage in the SWANS sound was integral in crafting that bombastic dirge-like military march procession tension that allowed all the atonalities and dissonance to wreak its sonic havoc.

Michael Gira, the mastermind of SWANS also played occasional bass guitar as well as offered his bedeviled moaning techniques for delivering his bleak and gloomy lyrics but in the live setting he also implemented many of the samples and sound effects although for the most part PUBLIC CASTRATION IS A GOOD IDEA has a much more stripped down approach than the studio albums. While many bands just play their music much as it sounds on the albums, the music on this live album that features tracks from only the "Greed" and Holy Money" albums do exhibit enough differences to warrant making this excellent live recording an essential part of your SWANS canon. Although not substantially different than the studio recordings, enough variations make it an interesting listen however PUBLIC CASTRATION does feel more jarring through its atonalities and minimalism than the spruced up studio recordings.

These live versions are real sprawlers. For example the opening "Money Is Flesh" from the "Greed" album is only over 6 minutes on the studio album and on PUBLIC CASTRATION is doubled to over 12. Likewise "Fool" originally at 5 1/2 has been extended to over 8. The lengthy repetitive sequences give these live renditions and even gloomier and more depressive veneer than the studio tracks. Another main difference is that in the moments of silence between drums and quite time there's also a use of the echo effect from the venues acoustical layout. Overall this live album will be of little interest to non-SWANS fans trying to acquire a taste for the band's avant-garde extremism as this period and the earlier recordings crafted some of the most inaccessible and cacophonous din of the band's career but served as a gateway to the more experiment arty albums that followed. While i'm not the hugest fan of live albums i really love some of the sounds they get from the echoey drumming and the overall torturous bleakness of it all. SWANS proves it was not limited to the studio on this release and made an excellent live act.