History Music / Swans

* '''''To Be Kind''''' (2014) - A more heavy, riff-driven post-rock album. Their most commercially successful album to date, peaking at number 37 on the Billboard 200. Notable collaborators include John Congleton, Julia Kent, Little Annie, Al Spx, and Music/StVincent.

* '''''The Seer''''' (2012) - The first album in an informal trilogy of epic full-lengths. Clocking in at 1:59:13, it's one of the band's longest albums and also one of their darkest. Its sound can best be described as a mixture of post-rock, drone, folk, and noise. Collaborators include [[Music/{{Low}} Alan and Mimi Sparhawk]], Karen O, Ben Frost, and Jarboe in her only appearance post-reformation. Met with critical acclaim.

* '''''The Glowing Man''''' (2016) - The final installment in the informal trilogy started by ''The Seer''. Features a more meditative, ethereal sound than its immediate predecessor while also making the tracks even longer, with 8 songs adding up to just under 2 hours of music. Gira has described it as "the musical equivalent of ''Film/BenHur''". Notable guests include Okkyung Lee and Michael Gira's wife Jennifer.

*** ''The Glowing Man'': "Cloud of Forgetting" (12:43), "Cloud of Unknowing" (25:12), "The World Looks Red / The World Looks Black" (14:27), "Frankie M." (20:58), "The Glowing Man" (28:50). The album approaches two hours in length despite containing only eight tracks. Even Michael Gira lampshaded the length of the album in an interview, when he said it was "the musical equivalent of ''Film/BenHur'', or Creator/AkiraKurosawa's ''Film/{{Ran}}.''"

* ''Music/SoundtracksForTheBlind'' (1996) - Considered to be their magnum opus. It's also very long, clocking in at around 2 hours and 21 minutes spread across 2 [=CDs=]. While it's usually classified as post-rock, it's very much more, containing audio collages, hardcore punk tracks, and even an EDM track. Gira has said that it contains material from Swans' whole career, dating back to '''1981'''. Outside of a live album and two compilations, this was Swans' last studio release until 2010.

* ''Anonymous Bodies in an Empty Room'' (Live, 1990, recorded 1988-89) - Live album recorded during the Burning World tour.

* Music/SoundtracksForTheBlind (1996) - Considered to be their magnum opus. It's also very long, clocking in at around 2 hours and 21 minutes spread across 2 CDs. While it's usually classified as post-rock, it's very much more, containing audio collages, hardcore punk tracks, and even an EDM track. Gira has said that it contains material from Swans' whole career, dating back to '''1981'''. Outside of a live album and two compilations, this was Swans' last studio release until 2010.

* '''''Soundtracks for the Blind''''' (1996) - Considered to be their magnum opus. It's also very long, clocking in at around 2 hours and 21 minutes spread across 2 CDs. While it's usually classified as post-rock, it's very much more, containing audio collages, hardcore punk tracks, and even an EDM track. Gira has said that it contains material from Swans' whole career, dating back to '''1981'''. Outside of a live album and two compilations, this was Swans' last studio release until 2010.

!! Discography ('''Full-length albums in bold''', ''EPs, Live Albums and Compilations in italic'')

* RearrangeTheSong:

* FakeGuestStar: Bill Rieflin isn't officially a member and doesn't tour with them, but he's played on every single studio album since ''The Great Annihilator''.

* '''''The Burning World''''' (1989) - The first and only studio album released on Uni. While it features more accessible pop melodies, many of the lyrics continue to deal with depression, death, greed and despair, but with some [[RayOfHopeEnding rays of hope]] added. Also, Gira begins to ''sing'' on a regular basis, as opposed to chanting or shouting the lyrics; his baritone vocals bring to mind a more urbane Music/JohnnyCash.

* '''''Soundtracks for the Blind''''' (1996) - Considered to be their magnum opus. It's also very long, clocking in at around 2 hours and 21 minutes spread across 2 CDs. While it's usually classified as post-rock, it's very much more, containing audio colleges, hardcore punk tracks, and even an EDM track. Gira has said that it contains material from Swans' whole career, dating back to '''1981'''. Outside of a live album and two compilations, this was Swans' last studio release until 2010.

->''"Swans are majestic, beautiful looking creatures. With really ugly temperaments."

Following ''Children of God'', Gira stated that he was tired of Swans being affiliated with the brutal noise of the first four [=LPs=] and also felt that the audience had expectations that he probably wouldn't fulfill. Going on into the '90s, Jarboe began to have an even bigger role in the band and softer elements, including classical instrumentation and, in later years, vibraphone.

With the surprise hit on US college radio of "Love Will Tear Us Apart", Creator/{{MCA}}'s sublabel Uni Records offered Swans a record deal. Gira described it as this:

* '''''To Be Kind''''' (2014) - A more heavy, riff-driven post-rock album. Their most commercially successful album to date, peaking at number 37 on the Billboard 200. You can thank [[WebVideo/TheNeedleDrop Anthony Fantano]] for that, as he gave the album a rare 10, making it only one of five albums he gave that rating to, and in the process giving it a '''massive''' ColbertBump. Notable collaborators include John Congleton, Julia Kent, Little Annie, Al Spx, and Music/StVincent.

* TextlessAlbumCover: All of their post-reformation albums.

* ArcWords: "Sun", "skin / flesh", and "love" frequently pop up as song titles or comparing people's desires to these things.
** "Child" and variations of it shows up ''a lot'' during the band's early days, with songs such as "Helpless Child", "Stupid Child", "My Buried Child", and that's to name a few.

* {{Motif}}: Both Michel Gira's lyrics and published fiction frequently feature people consuming, absorbing, and merging with each other, both [[BodyHorror physically]] and mentally.

* [[NeoclassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly Post-No Wave Baroque Industrial Art Pop]]

* RapeAsDrama: "When Will I Return?" is based on the actual sexual assault of Michael Gira's wife Jennifer Gira. He wrote the song to help her work through the trauma of the experience, and it's sung almost entirely by her with some backing from Michael.

* DespairEventHorizon: The narrator of "God Damn the Sun" seems to have reached it.

* EagleLand: "God Loves America" is a very bleak Type 2, excoriating it as a nation of empty consumerism and calling the American Dream a "dying lie".