Swans – Birthing

The bad news: all three records arrived from Young God warped-- and #2 and #3 were noticeably dished. I have 1500+ records in my collection, and this was the first time I have ever noticed this degree of dishing (or dishedness?) as soon as I took the records out of the sleeves-- usually I have to look much more closely to notice that a record is warped; these are probably the MOST dished records that I own. HOWEVER, the tone arm of my turntable (a Pro-ject Debut Carbon EVO) has excellent tracking/anti-skating, so it was NOT enough to effect play or effect the way the record sounds in my case (I made a point of re-balancing the tone arm before playing the records just to be sure, and I had absolutely no problems). I also gave the records a wet clean before playing them the first time to get rid of the residue which seems to inevitably accompany those cheapish paper inner sleeves; I don't know if that was enough to do the trick, but I did not experience any of the other issues that others describe below.

The good news: aside from the warping, the quality of the pressing in regard to sound (and in particular to the mastering job) is really fantastic! The sound level is on the quiet side-- I had to play the album at significantly higher volume than I usually do with other records-- but that is my preference anyways, as the details, nuances, and overall dynamic (this is an album which is both loud and quiet at different times) emerge very clearly at high volume. I am a huge Swans fan, and own every Swans (plus Angels of Light and Gira solo) record that Young God has released since roughly 2010 or so; this album might be the best sounding record(s) out of all of them. It's a shame about the warping-- but my copy sounds absolutely tremendous!

Even better news: I have only had the opportunity to listen to the album ONCE so far since it arrived a couple of days ago-- I am middle-aged, with a family and a demanding job, and I am at a point in my life where it is necessary to set aside a 2 to 3 hour time block in advance to be able to listen to Swans albums and give them the proper amount of attention they deserve-- but my initial reaction is that this is one of the better albums from this incarnation of the band (I loved 'Live Rope' and the last two studio albums, but I suspect that I will consider this one even better once I get to know it). It reminds me a little of 'Soundtracks for the Blind' (even beyond the cover!) in that it seems to sum up and include elements of all of the various earlier phases or eras of the band; but while 'Soundtracks' covered the early '80s through the mid-'90s, the focus here is on everything since the reformation in 2010 to the present. But there's also what sounds like momentary tributes to the first period of the band (and the Body Haters/Body Lovers, Angels of Light, etc.) as well as to Ligeti (a LOT of Ligeti!), Krautrock (in particular the ritualustic intensity of Can's 'Tago Mago'), '70s Eno, Bowie's Berlin period, early '70s Hawkwind, GY!BE and maybe even to what sounds like Spiritualized (?!) circa 'Pure Phase' and 'Ladies & Gentlemen..." or Stars of the Lid in places. And that's only what I am picking up on after a first lesson-- I am sure that I (or anyone else) could come up with another 20 or 50 names once the album becomes more familiar.

I think it is impossible to single out the best Swans album ever-- there would be so many in contention!-- and I've only heard 'Birthing' once at this point. But I suspect that over time, I am going to be thinking about this album as one of the albums (along with 4 or 5 others) to consider when I am thinking about the answer to the question "what is the best Swans album of all?"

This release is a bit dissatisfying. Two of the three records in my copy are warped, and the b-side of LP2 has a long stretch of repeating pops (possibly caused by a nasty-looking scratch on the vinyl). I really wish Swans would go back to whichever pressing plant they used to use. Even the recent Angels of Light reissues were vastly inferior to the original pressings.

first two disks are warped and dished. haven't inspected third yet. plays fine but annoying. no notes on the music.

my copy of this is fucked up. damaged center label on LP1, edges aren’t trimmed and have sharp spots, came with tons of dirt, a glitch on LP1 B-side, and these are definitely not 180g. great album, but disappointed in how my record arrived

Having listened to this album once, I can only offer my first impression, but I would say this sits up there happily with the trilogy quality wise. The sound sits somewhere between the trilogy and Leaving Meaning/The Beggar with Gira’s acoustic guitar ages being quite prominent in parts, (which reminds me of some of the gentler moments of recent albums) only to build to an explosive climax reminiscent of the trilogy.

Having heard a few of these songs on their recent live album Live Rope, it’s hard to look at the studio versions through a new lens (Birthing, Rope, Away) but they do still remain strong as studio tracks. Among the new tracks “The Merge” definitely stands out from a first listen. Definitely one of the grooviest bass riffs I’ve heard from them in recent memory. (A Little God In My Hands, Hanging Man vibes)

The DVD is a nice extra, consisting of an almost hour long Gira solo concert, which implements some arthouse film elements. (The opening song “The Parasite” is intercut with footage of what I assume to be real parasites) With the longer being a performance of the nearly 90 minute Rope/The Beggar that incorporates video footage from various concerts. The DVD quality is very compressed across the board and I do wish that these extras were issued on a high def disc or even a thumb drive like the full version of Live Rope.

As far as the pressing goes, absolutely zero complaints from me. I was keeping an open mind after the quality control for “The Beggar” seemed to take a massive dip, with my copy from Young God arriving quite dirty and suffering from numerous ticks and pops even after being cleaned multiple times.

I cleaned this record before listening and it played through beautifully, great dynamics when played loud, as all swans albums should be:)

As a side note, the songs on the vinyl version of this album do appear in a slightly edited form. I checked the runtimes against streaming and a few of them do run a couple of minutes short.