The 1986 Listening Post - Swans - Holy Money

Swans - Holy Money

#519 LISTENING POST DISCOVERY

November 20 1986

Swans

Holy Money

Genre: If Ian Curtis didn’t die but instead got progressively more and more depressed and made to express himself through song while being disallowed from killing himself and forced to turn vegetarian and the repeatedly fed meat. 

4.75 out of 5

Highlights:

A Hanging/You Need Me (They really are 2 parts of a whole…)

A Screw (Holy Money)

Money is Flesh

Ok. I get it. Right here. On “A Hanging”. It all comes together. I am consumed by a primal sadness as I listen to this and I am loathe to rehash any previous feelings about Swans or the bassist or Michael Gira in general. 

Sure, he’s tortured. That’s the point. 

What do you think Michael Gira does all day? Either he walks around Washington Square Park, smoking cigarettes and feeding pigeons or he watches Netflix Romantic Comedies all day. 

Or he secretly owns a real estate business and leases luxury apartments too Millenials.

Or he’s a murderer. 

https://open.spotify.com/album/3zPF6P53QTMzhx0bnylT7M?si=Rl-AFdetSN24sUZRqIZmeQ

The 1986 Listening Post - Swans - Greed

Swans - Greed

#56/1224

February 28 1986

Swans

Greed

Genre: Industrial Noise

2 out of 5

Highlights:

Greed

I’m glad I listened to this because it gives me a chance to correct a previous review of Swans material.

The member of the band that my college girlfriend dated (and with whom she gifted a threesome with her best friend…ugh) was the bassist and not the drummer.

Ok. 

As for the music.

I’ve mentioned before that I don’t know why anyone would listen to this unless they were soundtracking a BDSM event or scoring a domination/submission orgy scene in a movie where the music supervisor lacked any nuance. And then I had conversation with a friend, a superior musician whose music is very ambient and somewhat dark and he named off about a dozen bands like Swans whose music he puts on to relax.

!

So, there is something for everyone.

This is that something. 

I am not that someone. 

OMG, someone give Michael Gira a fucking hug. 

https://www.allmusic.com/album/greed-mw0001883300

The 1984 Listening Post - Swans - Cop

Swans - Cop

#104

May 2 1984

Swans

Cop

2.75 Out of 5

Highlights: 

Why Hide

Why would anyone put this record on?

Why would anyone buy this record? 

I mean, I applaud any and all artists for making their art. Dadaists, Mapplethorpe, Pollock, etc.  And I wrote a lot of words in a screed against this album and then I just let it wash over me and, yes, I suffocated my dog while I was listening to “Clay Man” but, I mean, who wouldn’t? 

And I HAD to let the album play through cuz I was busy cleaning up the blood off the floor and the bread knife I used to saw my arm off…

All that said, for an industrial album that would probably help you get through the process of slaughtering animals, it’s exactly that. 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/cop-young-god/1051815494

The 1983 Listening Post - Swans - Filth

Swans - Filth

May 27, 1983
Swans
Filth
2 out of 5

I’ve avoided Swans for 32 years. My college girlfriend used to go out with the drummer and she was still really hung up on him and it messed with my head.
I think I’m over it now. So, let’s see if this is the post-punk industrial genius I’ve always heard it was. (That drummer isn’t on this album, btw)
If my college punk band had access to a recording studio I guarantee our music would’ve been more interesting and more fun post-punk, no-wave than this is.
This is music for the soundtrack to an 80s film with a bondage & discipline club scene. I can’t see this playing anywhere else. The whole thing plays like a band hoping to get David Lynch to direct a video for them.