Swans | The Glowing Man
 

If you're excited and ready to head into this 118 minute affair (then you probably should've by now, honestly) be ready to not get another Seer or To Be Kind. It's a quiet record, compared to those two, embracing a more atmospheric mood and sound and less apocalypse doom end of the world guitar riffs. I'm enjoying it a lot, there's steam still up Michael Gira's ass, and proving to me this is the most natural progression a band came make after making two of the most behemoth records prior. I seriously was hoping this album wouldn't be just another Seer, or To Be Kind. Not saying those albums sound similar to me, they have obvious differences and whatnot, but The Glowing Man might end up being my favorite of the 21st Century lineup of Swans.

Like every other Swans record I've ever listened to, this is going to morph into new things as I listen to it more but as of now I'm very much on the same page as you. It's a lot more subdued as a whole than The Seer and To Be Kind. Total atmosphere album and something I'm really looking forward to seeing live in a month. Honestly, I don't have many words right now but will return here with thoughts as I continue to delve into the crevices of this thing.

How long do Swan concerts go till? I imagine a great Swans concert has to be about 4-5 hours.

First time. Okkyung Lee is opening so I'm going to guess Swans plays two and a half hours at least. That's not even the exciting part. That's reserved for the fact that they're playing a small venue in lower Manhattan. The Bowery Ballroom. I might actually die from brute frontal sound force. Check this out...

http://i.imgur.com/eJiRFJ6.jpg


Like, that's it. I'm going to die in pure dark brooding bliss. My ears will explode from delight and blunt force trauma.

Wow, there's like, 20 people in that room. You bastard. If I have to drive to Austin, or Houston to see them I'm fucking going.

Honestly, I'm just shocked this was allowed to happen.

That's similar to the place I saw them at in Philly—the Trocadero. I think you told me you went to a show there before. They were great—big, big waves of sound.

Yeah, I saw Sounds of Animals Fighting there. Great venue. We sat up in those comfy bleacher seats in the back.

That's where I sat for Swans. :)

When I first heard it, I was not in the right mood for this album, listening to it during the last two hours of a 12 hour work day when I should have thrown on a few grindcore or powerviolence albums. Even when listening to it in the wrong state, it still ranked at like a 3/5 and the only track I disliked at the time was Cloud of Forgetting because I didn't find it busy enough.

I blasted it the next day and loved Cloud of Forgetting on its own and in the context of the album. This one, while a little more understated than their two previous albums, is still just as gripping. Favourite song has to be a tie between Frankie M and The Glowing Man (though my favourite moments were from the violin on Cloud of Unknowing). I'm going to let a few more listens sink in before voting, but right now it's at a 4.5/5.

Michael Gira is really riding on the drug references in Frankie M. At first I thought it to be off putting, but it's my favorite track.

I haven't even really registered the lyrics yet tbh (which is hard for something like Swans imo, since it's so busy and textural).

https://s32.postimg.org/gpxhykkfp/image.jpg

If these words didn't jump out at you, I don't think you heard the song. Much less this record ;)

It doesn't hypnotize you?

Certainly. I was put in weird Swan trances multiple times throughout this record.

Well there you have it.

Don't you have to go and install harmonica's on sitars or something?

What's a citar?

I'm not sure? But this is a sitar

https://s31.postimg.org/f8rcogvtn/image.jpg

What would be the point of installing harmonica is on one?

I think The Seer will always take my top place for a Swans album, but I definitely see this as a massive improvement over the sometimes excruciating To Be Kind. That album had the problem in my eyes of blowing it's load by the end of the first disc. The Glowing Man doesn't ever suffer from that problem despite being a much more subdued effort than really any other Swans album to come before. It's astoundingly consistent for the massive length, but I need to give it more listens before I could give it a higher score than an 8.

The Seer>>The Glowing Man>>>To Be Kind

(sorry if this seems rushed, I'm sort of pressed for time while writing this)

Really? The best song on TBK is Oxygen imo, and that's in disk two.

To Be Kind(10) >> The Seer (9) >> The Glowing Man (7)

Although, keep in mind my score for the Glowing Man will likely go up with time, because I haven't really digested it yet.

Oxygen feels like a total retread of A Little God In My Hands imo.

Seriously? How?

After a few more listens, I'm sticking with my initial 4.5/5 ranking. Also,

To Be Kind > The Glowing Man > The Seer

Honestly fell like this is the weakest of the post-rock double disc trilogy. Disc #2 is pretty solid, like a 4/5, but disc #1 was kinda bland to me. Also "People Like Us" reminds me way too much of "Little Mouth" from My Father... Still, it's not a bad album by any means.

To Be Kind (9) > The Seer (8) > The Glowing Man (7)

This reviewer on Amazon is on to something

Too bad he just came out with another derivative Swans record last year.

I wonder if he ever stopped to think maybe these records are too ****ing long.

leaving meaning was good for that pocket of their style, it's just not as interesting as their early or post-reunion styles.

Seer and TBK are masterpieces, but Glowing Man was a step down for sure. In hindsight seems like they just dropped it to "justify" a tour.

You know

The World of Skin were an unassailable Swans diversion project if there’s anyone who missed that stuff and might be interested

Agreed. I saw them twice during their "last shows before death". I hate when bands do that.

I remember when The Burning World came out. I even liked it but still sort of felt like it was personal betrayal which was a weird attitude considering how deeply the Swans exhausted the spine crushing angle before that. I saw them touring that record, too.

I remember, vaguely, and this is hard to google but it was either Jon Spencer or Steve Albini, and back then then those guys were only associated with Pussy Galore, Big Black, and Rapeman - Blues Explosion and all that hugely successful record producing hadn’t happened yet, but one of those two bashed the **** out of the Swans for doing “Barry Manilow” **** (I think it was Jon Spencer)

I think either me or my friend asked Michael Gira about the comment (or maybe I just read it in a magazine, my memory is foggy as hell) and he said, “Yeah. I don’t get that ****. It sure isn’t going to help me sell any records.”

I bought The Burning World btw.

But it’s easy for me to expect the band to put their legacy in front of their rent.

And the Swans are one of the greatest bands of all time and their records range from great to unassailable. I still feel like these new records are too long but they’d probably tell me I don’t have to listen to the entire thing at once if I don’t want to.

Anyway, I forgot about The Burning World “betrayal” when Goo came out. That’s an album I still haven’t made peace with.

Everything Swans is amazing