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.
No Words / No Thoughts
Swans Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Soul of man, fallow hollow man, ego
See that man, zero zero man, hallow
Inner man, hollow fallow man, ego
See that man, hollow
See that man, hollow hater man, evil
See that man, follow hater man, evil
Long may he live, long may he live
Long may his children drift through the wind
To think is a sin, to think is a sin
Long may his world never begin
The lyrics in No Words / No Thoughts by Swans are rather cryptic but hint at the idea of the destructive nature of the human ego. The repetition of the phrase "see that man, ego inner man, hollow" suggests an individual whose ego has consumed them, leaving them hollow and empty. The line "to think is a sin" could be interpreted as a warning against the dangers of becoming too wrapped up in one's own thoughts and losing touch with reality. The final line, "long may his world never begin," implies that someone who is consumed by their ego will never truly begin to live and experience the world around them.
The song has a hypnotic quality, building on a repetitive guitar riff over the course of its ten-minute run time. The lyrics reflect the meditative nature of the music, with the repetition of phrases reinforcing the ideas of emptiness and hollowness. Despite its length, the song doesn't feel indulgent or overly long, instead creating a trance-like state that draws the listener in.
Line by Line Meaning
See that man, ego inner man, hollow
The singer is referring to a person who is consumed by their own ego and lacks substance
Soul of man, fallow hollow man, ego
The singer is emphasizing the fact that the man's soul is empty and his ego is all that drives him
See that man, zero zero man, hallow
The singer is further reinforcing the idea that the man is insignificant and lacks depth
Inner man, hollow fallow man, ego
The artist is describing the man's inner self as just as empty as the rest of him
See that man, hollow
The artist concludes that the man is simply hollow and has no true substance
See that man, hollow hater man, evil
The singer is suggesting that the man's emptiness has caused him to become hateful and malevolent
See that man, follow hater man, evil
The singer is acknowledging that there are people who follow and enable the hateful and wicked behavior of those like the man in question
Hater man, zero
The artist is reiterating that the man is nothing, just a shell driven by hatred
Long may he live, long may he live
The artist is sarcastically wishing for the man's longevity, despite his failings
Long may his children drift through the wind
The artist is envisioning the man's offspring wandering aimlessly, without direction or purpose
To think is a sin, to think is a sin
The singer is commenting on how the man views intellectualism and contemplation as immoral
Long may his world never begin
The artist is expressing a desire for the man's world to remain stagnant and never improve or grow
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@WhyHelloThereChaps
Youtube videos just don't come even come close to the experience of seeing Swans live
Was dead centre in the front row of one of their concerts, about two metres away from Gira
The intro to their show was as loud as any other band I'd ever seen, nothing special
But then 4:53 hits, all the instruments kick in, and it's pretty much like getting punched in the throat by sound, I literally had trouble breathing at that moment, I could barely move
Probably should've worn earplugs, the world echoed for about three days afterwards
@InsomniumX
To all complaining that they're playing just one chord in the middle part: beside the fact that the composition paired with the production is astounding, music is not about the number of melodies in a song, it's about just how intense emotional reaction it can provoke in the people who connect with it. It doesn't matter if the emotion itself is ecstacy, melancholy, tension, fear, or what have you.
@briel
Shamans often say one chant over and over to a drum beat that is repeated over and over for hours at a time. You don't hear the tribe bitching and moaning. Instead, they let themselves be overcome by the sound and they go on a spiritual journey.
@TheJabcon
It is Just a Dream do never forget: its the swans, the highlight of the 90s
@urmumsbaps
Anyone who sees music as being equal to the sum of it's parts doesn't truly understand music and won't ever truly understand a band like Swans.
@drpantz7732
@@urmumsbaps Well that's like your opinion man. Last time I checked, this noise was filed under the heading of art and thus, by its own decree, is ALWAYS subjective and open to interpretation. Therefore all acceptances as well as criticisms of it are valid. Unfortunately, yours sir, is not. As your basic premise assumes a failure on the part of the listener to "truly understand music", but with art of any kind, that can never be the case.
@joshjohnson30
I almost passed out witnessing this live. I almost dropped.
@SurvivorAndBatman
great song to cover at a high school talent show
@saraynorbert4196
LOL :-) hillarious idea!
@AMPFEAST
at 140 db! :-)
@kortufflpaua
SurvivorAndBatman can't decide between this or dopesmoker