Album Rating: 4.5

The Great Annihilator is probably their most accessible, and is also very good.

@Eclipse
The Swans comparisons to Daughters are really exaggerated in my opinion. The guitarist said that the comparisons are unwarranted in a reddit AMA.

If you want to understand the musical environment that Daughters built upon I recommend:
The Jesus Lizard, Arab On Radar, Antigama (Discomfort), Brainiac, As the Sun Sets (previous project of Daughters), U.S Maple, See You Next Tuesday and Psyopus.

Album Rating: 2.0

ofc the comparisons were weak but there are very few similarities. If there were more, I would probably like Swans more. Thanks for the recs, will check out!

Album Rating: 4.5

'Soundtracks for the Blind' might have the variety you're looking for, Eclipse.



Listened to it yesterday and it's so bloody good.

Album Rating: 2.0

Soundtrack is indeed pretty cool. But damn, 2.5 hours?!

The music makes up for it.

Album Rating: 3.5

You dont have to listen to both sides back to back.

Album Rating: 5.0

Gira's own description of Swans music as "The goal is ecstasy" is very interesting to me. How can something so draining and jarring be considered joyful?



Nowadays I like to liken this to music made for angels. As in, imagine listening to something not made for you, but for higher beings, It would of course overwhelm you and you'd only be able to grasp what makes it so joyful.



This is the most pretentious and cheesy thing I've written this week but for some reason I do enjoy the album more because of it lol. I guess I've always been intrigued by the concept of art so advanced to human minds, in a sort of lovecraftian way.

Mon I still love the tap dancing on The Apostate.

the long intro of 'Mother of the World' gets me so hot and bothered, i love it

Album Rating: 5.0

this is so much better than any of their other post-hiatus albums

will never get how anyone listens to TBK and doesn't just hear a watered down version of this

'will never get how anyone listens to TBK and doesn't just hear a watered down version of this'
TBK ditches almost all of the folk influence that occasionally shows up in The Seer and takes a slightly more post-rock / no wave approach, drawing a little bit more from their earliest albums, where this still has a lingering influence from The Angels of Light as well a bit more drone to it. I think overall it's "less heavy" and more atmospheric.
Point is: Aside from maybe a slight cribbing of album/song structure, I don't see how you can call either one a 'x-adjective' version of the other. They are both definitively post-hiatus Swans, but they also each carry a very distinct sound from one another.

Album Rating: 5.0

it prob hurts that I haven't heard anything they've done prior to My Father...

all I know is this album remains firmly in my top5 of the decade whereas TBK I forgot about almost immediately

I mean, they are both top-notch albums (4.5 and 5.0 for me), and honestly i can't stand much of anything prior to 'Children of God'. But 'To Be Kind' blends a bit of that early no-wave sensibility with their newer/progressive post-rock approach and the result is something much more digestible for me, because it works through more dynamic and complex soundscapes than just pure, discordant repetition. I like 'The Glowing Man' a lot, too (4.0), but 'To Be Kind' is imo a perfect summation of their career thus far. The most encompassing amalgam, I guess.

Album Rating: 4.7 | Sound Off

"will never get how anyone listens to TBK and doesn't just hear a watered down version of this"



because it's nothing like this?

Album Rating: 5.0

To me it sounds very similar. Lengthy drone passages, creepy vibes, etc. Of course it's been at least 3 years since I've listened to TBK so maybe I'm wrong? Idk

Album Rating: 4.7 | Sound Off

Outside the very base similarities (heavy on repetition, atmospherics), tecta put it best in that TBK harkens back to their earlier material and is pretty much, to me at least, an updated take on the no wave sound. However, what they did on this and subsequent albums isn't necessarily a new thing (see: Soundtracks for the Blind) although that one is a lot more diverse and even the longer cuts on that don't become absolutely monolithic centerpieces. I would seriously suggest giving that album a try.

Album Rating: 4.5

TBK is better than this, agreed

Album Rating: 4.5

In what sense? I'd say the only facet in which TBK is better than this is rhythmically

Album Rating: 4.5

But even then, this has Apostate, sooooo...