Continuing our spotlight on Swans this week, for today’s Weirdo Wednesday, we’re fast-forwarding to the band’s stellar second act that took flight in the 2010s. For those not privy, Swans had seemingly broke-up for good shortly after releasing their magnum opus Soundtracks for the Blind circa 1997. One listen to that strikingly dark, mind-fuck of an album, you can probably understand how Michael Gira was creatively and emotionally exhausted and thus decided to call it quits at the time.
But lucky for Swans fans, Gira ultimately resurrected the band a little over a decade later, easing back into things (relatively speaking) on 2010’s My Father Will Guide Me up a Rope to the Sky, before taking things to an entirely new level on 2012’s The Seer and 2014’s To Be Kind. Those latter two albums arguably represent the pinnacle of Swans’ entire catalog (with apologies to the aforementioned Soundtracks for the Blind), as the band managed to expand their already dense, foreboding sound into remarkably gripping new territory.
Absorbing those records in and of themselves is one thing, but experiencing live music is another matter entirely, as the sheer magnitude of the band’s sound often feels downright gravitational in concert. Many fans (including this one) can attest to the transcendental experience of seeing Swans live, which is difficult to convey via video. Still, this all-encompassing performance at Primavera Sound from 2013 gets pretty damn close. You could call it “weird”, sure, but profound is probably a more apt description. Dig it:
