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Originally Posted by SuchFriendsAreDangerous
Exactly, they were ALL more or less planned out, just that these past few records seem a bit more so, but I think these records reflect something like Sonic Nurse, a kind of structured chaos. Sonic Nurse was one of the most musical and structural records they ever put out, yet conversely it was filled with all kinds of chaotic feedback and harmonized with ambient noise. It felt like it bridged the gap between noise and music the way great jazz bridges the gap between structure and improvisation. In that regard, it think these past few Swans record nailed it, and while y'all will accuse me of bandwagoning, I didn't necessarily like their earlier music until they more recently shifted in this direction. By no coincidence, my favorite Sonic Youth era was 1998-2004 when they seemed to be doing a similar thing, and I embrace that it is the least popular of the Sonic Youth eras, and I also am starting to embrace the reality that "Swans fans" don't like this era and yet I dig it all the more, just like tool fans didn't like 10,000 Days whereas I thought it was there best, even Nirvana folks be shitting on In Utero when it was clearly a masterpiece  I think too often folks want a band to be confined by their earlier works, but think about YOUR OWN LIVES FOR A SECOND, ARE YOU THE SAME PERSON YOU WERE TEN OR TWENTY YEARS AGO? |
again it's not a matter of resenting bandwagoning, but rather that gira has ostensibly divorced himself entirely from the patented brute honesty which so endeared me to swans in favour of presenting something less visceral or actually intense by reducing it to mere caricature, quite likely so as to attain a more sizable audience. so it's not the sound, the sound isn't what I'm bitching about at all, indeed the less song-based elements of their recent work (the karen o shit is a fucking death wish for me) are some of my favourite stuff of theirs, but rather that gira is belying what was once the bedrock of swans, its crux. regardless of the stylistic approach he took with each record they all were characterised by this indefinable, soul purging quality which aligned it with say haino in how fucking uncomfortable it was. now he's a veritable pop star figure (bear with me) in how he flits between personas ad nauseam, and to me it seems as if it's merely for dramatic effect as the illusion of theatre is far less alienating than a man spiritually disemboweling himself onstage.
so ANYWAY I quite like the record, but it's like patchy as fuck. screenshot's lyrics were pretty blatantly an afterthought, literally just gira reciting every single swans buzzword you can think of, things we do is pure unadulterated shit, the same cliche rubbish lyrics as screenshot but without a mad groove, and the title track isn't half as good as it sounded live, a context wherein it was one of the few times a live band has really horrified me, like being in the middle of a storm. a little god in my hands I'm not too big a fan of either. the rest of it is fantastic, with just a little boy being the standout for me. really good record, but not the work of a godlike genius as it has been presented to be.