Swans - The Burning World (1989)

Back From The Dead...As Requested!
Originally posted May 5, 2010 & September 11, 2020

Swans - The Burning World
Studio Recordings @320
Available for around $50 used
Out of Print 

 

Crawling out of the same noisy, arty New York underground that sired Sonic Youth and Lydia Lunch, Swans created a dark, abrasive, murky, slowed-down noise rock that served as a starting point for their ruminations about alienation, depression, depravity, and the disturbing side of human nature. Singers Michael Gira and Jarboe have been the group's only constants over the years; Gira has taken the group from its early confrontational shock tactics to a more varied, mature attack. The band first appeared on record in 1982 with a self-titled EP, and these early releases document their search for the musical vocabulary to express their ideas effectively. Female singer Jarboe joined the group for 1986's Holy Money and brought a gentler, more relaxed dimension to Swans' sound. The band entered its creative peak with 1987's Children of God and the follow-up, Feel Good Now, and secured a deal with MCA through a cover of Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart," which became an indie hit in the U.K. In between releases, Gira and Jarboe recorded with their side project, Skin, an outlet for their quieter, more reflective side. Their first MCA album, The Burning World, came the closest to mainstream rock of anything they had done up to that point, and 1991's White Light From the Mouth of Infinity continued that trend. In 1995, Gira published a book, The Consumer and Other Stories, through Henry Rollins' publishing house; the book's release coincided with that of the album The Great Annihilator. This is the first and only major label release for the Swans.

I LOVE this record!

 

Track List:
1-The River That Runs With Love Won't Run Dry 4:14
2-Let It Come Down 4:28
3-Can't Find My Way Home (Steve Winwood)
4-Mona Lisa, Mother Earth 4:16
5-(She's A) Universal Emptiness 4:02
6-Saved 4:11
7-I Remember Who You Are 4:23
8-Jane Mary, Cry One Tear 3:51
9-See No More 5:30
10-God Damn The Sun 4:20

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Swans - Anonymous Bodies In An Empty Room - 1990

Back From The Dead... Originally posted June 21, 2010

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Swans - Anonymous Bodies In An Empty Room

Soundboard @192

Available used from $125.00 

The live material from The Burning World tour shows us what the album could have sounded like without record company interference. This may or may not be essential live Swans. The audio quality isn't massively great as it's a polished-up bootleg, but it's definitely worth a listen for those interested in how the band sounded live at this time. 

Track List
01 Let It Come Down
02 Blood On Your Hands
03 Untitled Excerpt *
04 Will We Survive
05 See No More
06 Still A Child
07 (She's A) Universal Emptiness
08 Miracle Of Love

 

* Untitled fragment is from "A Young Girl Needs More", one of two unreleased songs played on the 1988 tour.    

 

Jarboe Interview 2006

 

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  Bodies

Angels of Light - Everything Is Good Here / Please Come Home (2003)

Angels of Light - Everything Is Good Here / Please Come Home

(2003)

(For sample purposes only)

"While his countless post-punk contemporaries wallow in self-misery and miserable poetry, Michael Gira - the former leader of avant-noise-droners Swans - creates a ruptured synthesis of blues, folk, and rock with his new acoustic-based group." - SAN FRANCISCO WEEKLY

This is the third Angels of Light album to be released in limited edition on Important. Like the first two, it is limited to 500 copies on deluxe double virgin vinyl. According to Michael Gira, this album "started, innocently enough, with the intent of being a simple collection of well-written songs performed by the musicians who played them live for the last few years, with the addition of a few acoustic songs, lightly colored. Instead, as things often seem to go around here, I ended up saturating every available molecule of the recording tape with sound, then hacked, cut, poured sonic fertilizer/salt on the resultant wounds, and it finally metastasized into this raging/weeping beast, which in the end succeeded in slowly biting off my head, leaving this album behind as evidence."

Review at Pitchfork...



Buy the cd or flac or wave files HERE

Swans - Live Bochum Zeche 1987

Swans - Live Zeche
Bochum, Germany
September 9, 1987
Dramatic Audience Recording @320

Michael Gira Interview 1997

Michael Gira Interview 2006


Swans '87