Swans - 3 best albums

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Swans - 3 best albums

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Brutally heavy, wildly confrontational and blessed with a general ugliness sufficiently profuse to grant their name a delicious irony, Swans have remained a brooding, hugely influential presence in alternative rock for the last 25 years. The mammoth noise of Gira's band helped to define the sound of the 'no wave' movement, with the Swans' torturous, hypnotic blasts famously proving loud enough to induce vomiting in audience members during live shows. Progression from the primitive, visceral sound of early recordings such as Filth and Cop has seen Swans diversify into other genres, notably neofolk, shoegaze and gothic rock - in each incarnation, the band has succeeded in maintaining the powerful air of menace that has proved so iconic, whilst still treading some interesting new ground. An essential act for all those interested in the darker side of art.

Swans were all about something beautiful emerging from something unfathomably ugly. I can't help but think that when Mike Gira decided to name his band Swans, while they were channeling Neubauten through a great deal of distortion and further ugliness, he had that old children's story "The Ugly Duckling" in mind. He knew that at some point something would happen to soften them up a bit, turn them into something beautiful. That something, it turned out, was an enigma named Jarboe. The minute her voice cut through the haze of piano and flutes on "Blackmail" it was obvious that this was a different band than the one that only a few years ealier was churning nine minute beasts like "Raping A Slave". As the incredible journey of Jarboe and Gira kept going, the pair lead their backing band through various sounds, each more streamlined and less ugly, until they emerged as beautiful as their namesake and went out in a blaze of glory. Well, glory, sexual imagery and religious iconography…still, it was beautiful.

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Swans - 3 best albums

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The opening track "Better Than You" almost says it all: Starting with the wail of an infant, then suddenly crashing into surging music that mixes quick, energetic drums with bells and other instruments, the song turns into a dramatic acoustic guitar/percussion piece with Gira's brooding voice and Jarboe's haunting backing; after some re-developments of the themes, it ends with a beautiful restatement of the sung section with additional guitar and bell sounds. At once incredibly destructive and astoundingly life-affirming – and worth the entire Burning World album several times over – "Better Than You" demonstrates that Swans had emerged from their major-label fiasco even more powerful and artistic than before, aiming for an awesome, all-encompassing majesty in their music that the admittedly hypnotic earlier versions of the band, in their brute forcefulness, simply could not have achieved.

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Swans - 3 best albums

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Everything from raging electric music in extreme to the gentlest of acoustic strums can be found here, ultimately being a perfect encapsulation of Swans' sound – as much as any greatest-hits anthology could ever have been. "The Helpless Child," the epic-length Gira-sung piece previewed on Die Tür ist Zu, amazingly gets an even more brilliant revision here, while another similarly lengthy track, "The Sound," at once roars and whispers over its length in a way that early Swans – much less many other bands – could never have done. Other tracks continue Swans' then-recent practice of mixing random taped conversations with exquisitely arranged performances: "I Was a Prisoner in Your Skull" is especially noteworthy as the clear forerunner of Godspeed you Black Emperor!'s entire musical approach.