[rayword45]

Day 20: To Be Kind by Swans (Album Choice: Me)

Two hours. It's 11 PM. I shouldn't be doing this.

Anyways, if you don't know who Swans are look them up. My experience with Swans thus far is this. I listened to Children of God first, as people said to do. There were a couple of good songs but overall I found the whole thing to be rather inconsistent and highly underwhelming. So I moved on to the early stuff. I listened to Filth, then I listened to Cop. The only song I can remember from both albums is Weakling. Two more albums down, two more underwhelming experiences. At that point, I decided "eff it" and went to listen to the highest-regarded album, which is usually considered the black sheep album, Soundtracks For The Blind. That, was a good damn album. 140 minutes made it somewhat intimidating to approach, and there were a few e clunkers in there for sure (Yum-Yab Killers is particularly memorable for totally sucking), but I was definitely rewarded when I listened to it, and that's the only Swans album I would give more than a 6/10 out of the 4 I listened to. This is the second-highest regarded Swans album on RYM at the moment, and as I mentioned a while ago, The Needle Drop gave it a 10/10. That makes a total of two albums he gave a 10/10 and the other one was The Money Store. Was it good? Yeah. Was it 10/10 good? Hell to the fucking no, that is some hipster hyping right there. And it seems that after he gave it a 10/10 the internet (/mu/ in particular) just blew up with splooshes for Death Grips. I've been watching too much Archer. Don't get me wrong, I do like Death Grips to an extent, but giving The Money Store a 10/10 was just a wrong opinion. Let's see if this opinion was wrong too!

Day 5 of the pledge: I already reported on this day. Let's go straight to the music now.

I must note that this album isn't very "new" at this time, this being the 2 month anniversary of this album's release. With a track record of 25% for me, it took a lot to muster up the willpower to listen to this album, and "a lot" in this case mean two months of waiting. Within the last two months I had heard the song Oxygen but sources tell me that song wasn't indicative of the album's sound very much. Those sources were right. That song sounded like a mix between The Birthday Party (whom I like), Korn (whom I hate) and drone music (of which I like some, but not really drone so much as "repeating the same measure-long riff for the entire damn song"). The only part that stayed for these first two songs it seems is the drone aspect. And yeah these first two songs do not need to be as long as they are. Well, maybe I'm being judgemental on the first track now that I think about it. It drones for a little bit then crescendos, like any other modern post-rock track. Not the greatest thing ever but pretty good I guess. This second track though, that's a bit more problematic. For 9 and a half minutes that seem like 30, it drones the same 4 second bass riff OVER AND OVER. They toss in flecks of other instruments to tease you, as well as bizarre screams of "I'm not human!" and "I need love!" Then, finally at the 10 minute mark, it begins to actually crescendo. 10 freaking minutes? It would've been just as cathartic if you droned for maybe half that time! Oh well, this third track, on the other hand, drones the same NOTE for a long time, but it does so at a rhythm that makes it totally danceable. In my mind, dance-y music = repetition so it's okay, and this track is great. Instead of annoyingly saving everything for the last two minutes, it starts out minimalist and funky, then adds an instrument every minute or so and increasingly gets demented with each new sound until the end where everything falls apart. THAT is a rewarding track... Oh boy, 34 minute track coming up now. And yeah, besides the vocals in Just a Little Boy (for Chester Burnett) this sounds nothing like The Birthday Party, and thank god, nothing at all sounds like Korn.

Unlike the first 3 tracks, this track starts out loud and punchy. Then it goes quiet with a background drone, another repetitive bass riff, another repetitive guitar riff and mantra like vocals. This music isn't sexy at all, I'll say that. Swans were absolutely NEVER sexy but you know, that's gonna an important factor for me for the next few weeks. It's not trying to be sexy and I'm glad it's not. Hey you know what's funny? The 34 minute song drones for less time than the 12 minute song. What's the deal with that? Wow, no joke, when the vocals get even more chant like 9 minutes in you can practically smell the burning incense. The song's style is similar to the last three but reminds me more of Soundtracks For The Blind although with considerably less Jarboe and considerably more anger. Everything I said there is pretty much a good thing, maybe not more anger but whatever. This song is only a third through and it seems to be reaching towards a climax already. That, kinda worries me. But we'll see. Huh, before listening to this track I assumed Toussaint L'Ouverture was a classical music piece that this song was at least influenced by. Nope, turns out, according to the internet, he's the Haitian Napoleon. Yeah I was really wrong and that was a stupid assumption to make. Oh yeah, anyways, so after the 12 minute mark, where you expect a climax, it gets quiet, there's a bit of metal chord chugging then it drones and you think this is gonna turn into Earth. Rest assured or disappointed. It goes back to the quiet drone, then I assume at the 20 minute mark Gira wanted to give you a taste of his live shows, because it's a bunch of guitar noise mashed with whatever field recordings it seems he could find. It's two minutes of incomprehensible mess. Then it's back to the quiet. Title drop is incredibly underwhelming, the French accent almost makes it cheesy. I'm just summarizing the track for you in a very poor fashion you have to listen to it yourself if you wanna get the real deal, if that's obvious enough. I'm gonna stop describing the song, so I can leave the last 12 minutes a surprise (Spoiler alert: There's more droning). When it ends I will tell you how rewarding the track is overall, which you'd hope is "very much so" since it's more than a fucking half-hour.

Well it's over. Dare I say this? Yes I dare say this. That just sounded like Sonic Youth got a lot darker and did a long jam session. My mind is not blown at all.

Some Things We Do is the last song on the first disc. Goddamnit I'm only half done here? Anyways, it's dissonant string sections, vaguely tribal drums, and poetry that would impress Trent Reznor AKA not very good poetry. As you would expect after a 34 minute post rock track full of crescendos and heavy drones, this is basically a break track and it would be SO MUCH BETTER if Gira left this as an instrumental. Because lyrically this is freaking horrible.

The second side starts out fairly promising. She Loves You kicks off the second side, is the second longest track on the album, and is a bit less than one-second the length of the longest track... I forced that so hard. I wish I could force it harder by saying that the song doesn't waste a second, but that would be a lie. It idles on a bit too long for my taste. Luckily, the intro and the climax both kick total ass so it doesn't feel disappointing. Lyrically though, this is even worse than Some Things We Do. Early Swans is often described as "caveman music" and when you hear it, it's easy to see why. However, those lyrics often seem to satirize overly angry or overly masculine music in a way that seems genuine. Here, you get to listen to Gira scream "FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!" for about 10 minutes. It's like an inversion of Song Against Sex by Neutral Milk Hotel, because according to this song, love is just a bunch of sex apparently. If this is satirical, this is the least witty satire I have ever listened to. If it's meant to convey emotion, damnit I'm not 12 anymore.

Overall though, the second side seems to be much better than the first (at least upon first listen). Kirsten Supine is yet another lengthy post-rock track, but it has THE best crescendo out of all the songs, starting out like quiet chamber music, and building up in a truly amazing way. The quiet feedback, jangly guitars and squeaky strings all build up in contrast with the pounding drums that harken back to the earlier Swans material. I mentioned that I listened to Oxygen before. It's a little bit corny ("Oxygeeeeeeeeeeeeyeyeyeyeyen"), but it still kicks total ass. Those horns will melt your face off. Nathalie Neal starts out with a nice bit of near-ambience after the pummeling Oxygen, then goes in with one of the best drum tracks on the whole album. The middle seems to drag on a little bit but overall a very captivating track. And finally, FINALLY, we reach the last track. My hands are too carpal tunnel-y at this point to say much. Not really that's a lie. I just don't feel like commenting much. I will say that it doesn't really end on a high note, BUT it was a ton more climactic of an ending than the one to Soundtracks For The Blind.

Yeah screw you Fantano, this is not a 10/10. Or, well, at least in my book. Unlike The Money Store, I can totally understand why someone would give this album a 10/10. But I personally can't do that. Too many flaws to list. Or actually, no not too many, let's do that right now.

1. Too many of the songs overstay their welcome, especially when it comes to the drone-based tracks. Kinda hypocritical considering I gave albums like The Disintegration Loops a 10/10 but whatever.
2. In fact, the album as a whole doesn't need to be two hours. It could do with a fair amount of cutting to say half that length.
3. Regarding Bring The Sun/Toussaint L'Ouverture, look if I wanted to listen to industrial Phish... Well actually, I can't think of anything there.
4. That is the worst album art I've seen this year. That wouldn't bring the score down but it is worth noting. Both My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky and The Seer had great artwork. What gives?
5. Ordering issues. This album is backloaded as hell, seeing how the only tracks I enjoyed for their full length on the first side were A Little God In My Hands and Screen Shot.
6. As a matter of fact I only enjoyed Screen Shot retrospectively.
7. Lyrics. Okay I never looked to Swans for beautiful, meaningful lyrics (although Angels of Light is a whole 'nother ballgame). But seriously, from what little I've listened to, these are Gira's absolute nadir lyrically, they make Marilyn Manson look like John Darnielle. All the seriously bad lyrics from older albums were Jarboe's fault.
8. You know what, I do have too many flaws to list, I'm done here.

Overall though, I will say that all of the weaker tracks did at least have a few good moments each, and the tracks that were more riff than drone were, for the most part, fantastic, as well as some of the post-rockier tracks. But there's simply too much wasted time for many of these tracks, if hipsters hate Jam Rock why the hell do they treat that fourth track like a masterpiece? Yet another underwhelming experience from Swans for me, and this one hurts more, because with a little (or really A LOT) cutting, this would almost certainly rival Soundtracks For The Blind.

Best Track: Toss-up between Kirsten Supine and A Little God In My Hands
Rating: 6/10 (nope, didn't break the non-SFTB peak)