Marginally associated with the no wave scene at first, their original sound was slow and extremely heavy, with live performances that were often so brutal and physical that in a number of instances certain audience members were made ill, police were called and venues were shut down. This early physical sound is possibly best heard on the live album Public Castration Is A Good idea.
Their initial style shifted a little by the time Swans released seminal twin albums Greed and Holy Money. The music had sped up, at times being even more punishing than their earlier output. Drum machines and samples were slightly more prominent. Michael Gira was joined vocally by Jarboe which gave the band a broader sonic range. Tracks featuring Jarboe were often quieter, even pretty, acting as counterpoint to the more harrowing themes on the albums. Over time, this style would come to dominate Swans' output, although they somehow seem to have been able to make a strummed acoustic guitar seem as brutal as their earlier amped-up assaults. The lush instrumentation of their albums from the late 1980s and the 1990's anticipated the birth of post-rock.
Swans eventually broke up in 1997; Gira went on to release some solo work, later forming the band The Angels Of Light, who continue many of the themes and styles found in (later) Swans. Jarboe releases solo work and frequently works with other bands and artists; recently she released an album with Neurosis, a group clearly heavily influenced by Swans.
The influence of Swans upon the music world is profound. Across their 15 years of existence, the various styles they explored gave birth to grindcore (Napalm Death, Nasum) modern "cinematic" post-rock (Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Mono), and atmospheric sludge metal (Isis, Neurosis).
In January 2010, Michael Gira reactivated Swans and released a new album, My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky on September 2010, and the band simultaneously embarked on a world tour scheduled to last eighteen months. The band had been chosen by Portishead to perform at the ATP I'll Be Your Mirror festivals that they curated in July 2011 at London's Alexandra Palace and in September 2011 in Asbury Park, New Jersey.
On August 28, 2012, Swans released The Seer, a double-album running almost 2 hours in length. Frontman Michael Gira described the album as taking "30 years to make. It's the culmination of every previous Swans album as well as any other music I've ever made, been involved in or imagined. But it's unfinished, like the songs themselves. It's one frame in a reel. The frames blur, blend and will eventually fade." Describing the songwriting process, Gira said, "The songs began on an acoustic guitar, then were fleshed out with (invaluable) help from my friends, then were further tortured and seduced in the studio, and now they await further cannibalism and force-feeding as we prepare to perform some of them live, at which point they'll mutate further, endlessly, or perhaps be discarded for a while."
On May 12, 2014, Swans released their thirteenth LP, To Be Kind. Produced by Michael Gira and recorded by John Congleton. It received positive reception from critics which made the group continue to make more albums that have also have received positive reviews.
It was announced on July 22, 2015, that the band was releasing their fourteenth studio album, titled The Glowing Man. The album was released on June 17, 2016.
After The Glowing Man released, the band took a hiatus lasting nearly a year in 2017 and ending in 2018. The band released their fifteenth studio LP Leaving Meaning the next year. The same year, a documentary about Swans was released titled “Where Does A Body End?”.
In March 2021, Michael Gira released a tracklist of an upcoming Swans album, titled The Beggar. It was released on June 23, 2023.
Blind Love
Swans Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Hold onto my unborn hand
Feel what I'll never be
Need me badly
Need what I have
Need what I am
I am a dead man
Now I am a dead man
I am unborn
I am unborn now
I am unborn
Need my love
Need my fake love
Hold onto my hand
Hold onto my unborn hand
Need what I make you become
Blind love
Blind love
I am a dead man
I am a cold dead man
And I am unkind
I am unkind
Feel my hand
Feel my dead hand
Need my love
Need my blind love
Love blind
Blind love
Feel good
Feel good now
Love
Now
At its core, Swans' song Blind Love is an exploration of the concept of need and control in relationships. The opening lines, "Hold onto my hand, hold onto my unborn hand, feel what I'll never be" set the tone for the rest of the song as it seems that the singer is asking their partner to hold onto an idea of who they could be or what they could provide. They go on to say "need me badly, need what I have, need what I am" which can be interpreted as the singer feeling as though their partner needs them specifically for what they can do for them rather than for who they are as a person. The line "I am a dead man" is particularly poignant as it suggests the singer may feel emotionally disconnected from their partner or perhaps that they feel their own emotions have been deadened in this relationship.
As the song progresses, the singer continues to ask their partner to "need my love" while also acknowledging that their love may not be real or genuine - "need my fake love". The repetition of the phrase "blind love" throughout the song is also significant as it speaks to the idea that both parties may be blindly pursuing a relationship that ultimately isn't fulfilling.
The final lines of the song - "feel good, feel good now, love, now" - are somewhat ambiguous as it's not clear who is speaking or what their intention is. It could be interpreted as the singer trying to manipulate their partner into feeling good or simply trying to make the best of a bad situation.
Line by Line Meaning
Hold onto my hand
I want you to hold my hand and never let go
Hold onto my unborn hand
I want you to hold on to my future, the potential of what I may become
Feel what I'll never be
I want you to understand and feel the things that I will never be able to achieve
Need me badly
You need me desperately in your life
Need what I have
You need everything that I possess
Need what I am
You need me for who I am
I am a dead man
I am emotionally and mentally dead inside
Now I am a dead man
I have just realized that I am dead inside
I am selfish
I am only concerned about my own needs and desires
I am unborn
I am not yet fully formed or realized
I am unborn now
I am still in the process of becoming who I am meant to be
Need my love
You need my affection and attention
Need my fake love
You only want my love if it's not genuine or real
Need what I make you become
You need me to help shape and mold you into the person you wish to be
Blind love
You love me blindly, without questioning my intentions or motivations
Blind love
Your love for me is blind and unconditional
I am a cold dead man
I am emotionally frozen and incapable of feeling any warmth or love
And I am unkind
I am not a nice person, and I don't treat others well
Feel my hand
I want you to feel my touch, to reassure you that I'm still here
Feel my dead hand
My touch is devoid of warmth or life, symbolic of my emotional state
Need my blind love
You want my love, even if it's one-sided and I can't reciprocate
Love blind
Our love is blind, it's not based on rational thinking or logic
Blind love
Our love for each other is unconditional and based on faith
Feel good
I want you to feel happy and fulfilled in our relationship
Feel good now
I want you to feel happy and fulfilled right now, in this moment
Love
I love you, without any reservations or conditions
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
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