Swans - Various Failures
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Music CD Cover
Artist: SwansEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 1999-04-13
Music Label: Young God Records
Soundtracks:
Music CD 1
- Miracle Of Love
- Black Eyed Dog
- The Golden Boy That Was Swallowed By The Sea
- (-)
- I Remember Who You Are
- Her
- No Cruel Angel
- When She Breathes
- Why Are We Alive?
- The Child's Right
- (-)
- The Other Side Of The World
- Song For Dead Time
- Love Will Save You
- Blind
- Unfortunate Lie
- Was He Ever Alive?
- Failure
- Identity
- Can't Find My Way Home
- Trust Me
- Better Than You
- Love Will Tear Us Apart
- Will We Survive?
- Drink To Me Only With Thine Eyes
- God Damn The Sun
- Eyes Of Nature
- You Know Everything
- Song For Dead Time
- Picture Of Maryanne
- Amnesia
- Dream Dream
- Please Remember Me
- New Mind (Acoustic)
Free Music Notes for Various Failures
Free Music Review: Just Plain Scary.
Hit: 5 Stars
If you're new to Swans: These are the songs Johnny Cash would sing after killing his children in their sleep. These are the songs Mrs. Cash would sing after deciding he did the right thing. They'd sit in the dark, and wait for God's judgment. Melodramatic? Sure, but I'm tellin' you..."Various Failures" showcases Swans in their Old Testament folk-rock period. After the first several releases, they moved away from death-march discord into more conventional music. There's easily more wrath and despair in Swans than in any other band I've heard. Michael Gira sings of a world where human life has no value ("Was He Ever Alive?", "Failure," "The Childs Right") and the only effective diversion is devouring the weak. Jarboe is the queen of oblivion ballads ("Song for Dead Time," "When She Breathes," "I Remember Who You Are").
This album, along with 1996's "Soundtracks for The Blind," makes me wonder if there wasn't some actual possession going on; it couldn't ALL be done through vivid imagination alone. The stories are so intense, the music so skillful, and the cd packaging so inspired that "Various Failures" remains a powerful example of Swans in its middle age. Plus, Jarboe does some cool covers ("Black Eyed Dog," "Can't Find My Way Home," and "Love Will Tear Us Apart"). Do not listen to this stuff in the dark.
Various Failures Poster
Given the label troubles which rendered much of Swans' late-'80s/early-'90s work out-of-print all too quickly -- Gira's comments on MCA and Sky Records since that period have never been less than utterly scathing -- this particular entry in the late-'90s reissue series was one of the most eagerly awaited releases by fans, though not without controversy. Rather than completely reissuing everything -- Burning World, White Light, Love of Life, the World of Skin album Ten Songs From Another World, plus numerous singles and the live Omniscience -- Gira compiled and fully remastered a broad-ranging (and as has often been the case with these reissues, non-chronologically ordered), two-disc distillation of what he considered to be the best moments of the period. (In many cases he selected alternate or unreleased takes, some notably better than the more familiar versions, as with Burning World's "God Damn the Sun," one of only two tracks taken from that troubled album; Omniscience itself is not featured at all on this collection.) There was some griping from Swan's fan base over this, but the fact is Gira's instincts were spot on; Failures pulls together all of the fantastic, often unappreciated highs from these years, resulting in something arguably better than all of the original releases put together. The band's spectral, mysterious, folk-influenced side (such as "Failure" and the World of Skin's take on Nick Drake's "Black-Eyed Dog") and the epic, film soundtrack-sounding side ("Better Than You," "The Golden Boy...") are both featured in full force, as are the many side explorations and combinations of the same. As a further welcome bonus, just about every B-side from the singles of those years appears here, including such wonders as Gira's take on "Song for Dead Time" and the acoustic version of "New Mind," along with Jarboe's truly fascinating take on "Love Will Tear Us Apart." ~ Ned Raggett, All Music GuideAlternative Rock Music CDs
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