Track Listing
1. Half Life
2. Job
3. Why Hide
4. Clay Man
5. Your Property
6. Cop
7. Butcher
8. Thug
9. I Crawled
10. Raping a Slave
11. Young God
12. This Is Mine
13. Sealed in Skin
14. Fool
15. Time Is Money (Bastard)
16. Money Is Flesh
17. Another You
18. Blackmail
19. Screw (Holy Money)
20. Fool #2
21. Stupid Child
22. Anything For You
23. Nobody
24. Screw
25. Heaven
26. Coward
27. Hanging
28. You Need Me
29. Greed
| Details | | Contributing Artists: | Jarboe, Jim Thirwell | | Distributor: | MSI Music Distribution | | Recording Type: | Studio | | Recording Mode: | n/a | | SPAR Code: | n/a |
Album Notes
Originally released as three separate LPs: COP, GREED, and HOLY MONEY plus the EP YOUNG GOD.
Swans: M. Gira (vocals); Westberg, Mosimann, Crosby, Kizys, Jarboe, Gonzales, Parsons, Nahem.
Additional personnel: Lo, Prosser, Erskine, Thirwell.
Producers include: M. Gira.
Enigineers include: Jorge Estaban.
Recorded at Vanguard Studios, New York, New York & Platinum Studios, Zurich, Switzerland in February through May 1984; Intergalactic Studios, New York, New York in January 1986; Soho Studios, London, England in April 1986.
Digitally remastered by M. Gira (1998, Griffin Mastering, Atlanta, Georgia).
U.K. version.
Swans play some of the most brutal songs that can still be called music. This two-disc set collects the band's third, fourth, and fifth albums, along with an early EP. Clearly influenced by Throbbing Gristle and Test Department, Swans take the basic template of industrial music, remove the last vestiges of punk rock--along with any semblance of humor--and create something so punishing, so monumentally "heavy," that it seems as though they really have to wrench out every sound.
The first disc focuses on the body--the mental as well as the physical. "Why Hide," a gut-wrenching slow grind, features the charming "I need you more than I hate myself / You hurt me then hurt yourself / Why hide the lie?," delivered in Michael Gira's sandblasted and glass-shattered voice. The second disc ups the speed of the songs, lyrically focuses on power, and keeps up (occasionally exceeding) the graphic intensity of the earlier material while also exploring new ingredients. "Blackmail" introduces a piano and female vocals, and "A Screw" features horns. This music is in no way fun or pleasant. A glance at the track titles ought to make that abundantly clear. Swans are, however, compulsively interesting.
Editorial Reviews
...It's hard to imagine a colder, bleaker sound than the monotonous rhythmic pounding found on this two-disc reissue of four of their mid-'80s releases, but if you're in the right state of mind, their grueling music is strangely beautiful. - Rating: A-
Entertainment Weekly (03/19/1999)
Included in Q's 50 Heaviest Albums of All Time - ...Like crushing your head in a vice...
Q (07/01/2001)
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