SWANS "SWANS ARE DEAD" Young God / Atavistic Records (ALP104CD/YG03) 1997
BLACK CD (FINAL TOUR 1997) (72:22) WHITE CD (1995 TOUR) (70:44)
Feel Happiness (16:57)
Final Sac (8:43)
Low Life Form (4:54) The
Sound (12:51)
Not Alone (13:12) I
See Them All Lined Up (6:26)
Blood on YR Hands (2:59) Lavender
(8:02)
Hypogirl (3:22) YR
PRP (8:51)
I Crawled (10:05) Yum
Yab (4:36)
I Am the Sun (5:26) Helpless
Child (17:44)
Blood Promise (15:23) M/F
(3:25)
SWANS '97 were: M. Gira, Jarboe, Clinton Steele, Bill
Bronson, Phil Puleo.
SWANS '95 were: M. Gira, Jarboe, Larry Mullins, Vudi, Joe Goldring.
Overall impression: excellent. If you were at any of the shows on the final tour last year, then you know the power and intensity that was live SWANS. This is the real deal: pure, emotional, hard, intense, beautiful, grinding, etc, etc, etc. If you weren't there (what? you didn't see SWANS last year?), then maybe this wonderful double live cd document will give you a small feeling of what it was like to be there. Everything SWANS has ever been over the past 15 years is summed up in this farewell set. There's the pounding, the massive buildups and swells of guitars, the slamming bass, the drones, the percussive onslaughts ... offset by gentle melodies and quiet passages. Then there's the unmistakable voices of M. Gira and Jarboe. It's all here. The packaging is a continuation of the "Die Tur" and "Soundtracks" design, very nice. The sound is great (with the exception of a few distorted sections in a few songs), the songs are excellent and in the same order as the show setlists so you can relive what was an extraordinary live experience. Just make sure you crank the volume ...
Go here for a more detailed track by track review.