Swans
Cop/Young God
Thirsty Ear
Swans
Greed/Holy Money
Thirsty Ear
As part of the ongoing effort to make the Swans back-catalog available, Cop , Young God , Greed , and Holy Money have been collected on two CDs that together run over 2 1/2 hours. This collection represents the most influential era in Swans history. Brutal, violent, psychotic, tortured, and joyless are all accurate words to describe the way in which the music is presented. Musically, it ranges from stripped-down to the most basic elements of rhythm and voice to thick layers of endless sustained guitar. Michael Gira uses everything from a twisted whisper to gut-wrenching prolonged screams to articulate his obsessions: money, work, sex, rape, power, greed, authority, etc. Slow choral orchestrations and minimalistic rhythms create an atmosphere that can only fittingly be described as intense. This isn’t that shit that NIN plays to appeal to every angry fifteen-year-old virgin with a bad complexion. Compared to Michael Gira, Trent Reznor loves as happy as Jennifer Love Hewitt. Listen to this and hear what real torment sounds like.
