Before we begin, I’d like to apologize for downloading the leak of the record. Gira wont read this, but I just want it public that, yes, I’ve had it for like a month, and that was a month before the general public had it, when I wasn’t supposed to have it. To make up for it, I bought it twice, and I am now going to spend my power praising it.
I’m also going to take a moment to indulge in detailing the way I listened to this record. You don’t have to listen to it this way for it to be good, but I found it to be a positive experience overall.
I’ll put a big bold “actually talking about the record” thing afterwords if you want to ignore this.
-Wait until night.
-Close all doors/windows, turn off all fans.
-Have two lights and your computer monitor, brightness max, set to turn off after 32 minutes.
-Position one light in front of you, and one behind you. Monitor placement isn’t so important- I had it beside me.
-Press play. I feel it’s definitely a speakers record, but if you want to use your headset, go for it.
-The following is a lighting guide.
—Only the front light :: Lunacy, Mother Of The World, The Wolf
—All lights :: The Seer
—Back light only :: The Seer Returns, 93 Ave. B Blues, The Daughter Brings The Water
—Back light & monitor* :: Song For A Warrior, Avatar
—Monitor only :: A Piece of the Sky
—The monitor should fade to black at the start of The Apostate.
*do try to avoid touching the mouse/computer at all after Song For A Warrior starts.
OKAY I LIED HERE’S SOMETHING A LITTLE EXISTENTIAL
Over the last few years, I’ve come to understand the nature of rock and roll in the year 2012. I briefly addressed this in my article “Bad Isn’t Good Enough,” stating that rock music is now a subculture. That probably puts it politely: The reality of the situation is that rock has been dying for years now, even though it’s now more refined and experimental than it has ever been. Truly, rock music is achieving a rounded, perfected form, on a much shorter time-frame than, say, orchestral music. Clearly defined phases and time periods, changes moving in pace with technology, basic things like this.
“That which is perfect is finished.”
The reality is that musical structure as we know it now will not last forever. Music holds sway through the power structure it is embraced or rejected by, which is currently Capital, and Capital isn’t really being vague right now: rock music is out. Strange pantomimes of it occasionally make an impression, but nothing full-strength.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The end of rock is certainly a heady enough subject to consider and make a statement about. I’d even argue that this is the basis of the first two Constantines records: each record takes to the terminal diagnosis of rock and it’s culture in line with the Kubler-Ross model, past denial (although the self-titled spends more time in Anger and Shine A Light in Acceptance).
ACTUALLY TALKING ABOUT THE RECORD NOW
Much has been said about the reactivated Swans, both from the press and the band. That they’re more powerful than ever, that their only goal is ecstasy, that they are all stellar men, and praise and praise and praise. Now, my perspective on this period relative to the rest of their work is undermined by the fact that “My Father” was the first record of theirs I finished, and I still think it’s start-to-finish the best album of 2010. However, that sets the context of how I viewed my deep dive into their catalog in the year of “down time” (at least as far as recording goes) during 2011.
Even a newcomer like me was able to note the most obvious aspect of the Swans catalog: it is almost absurdly varied. I would imagine it’s easy to account this to Gira’s wild youth (recorded in detail elsewhere) that deadened the concept of change being scary. In the Swans catalog, change was sought and embraced, in dramatic totality. I wager this was to be the legacy of Swans, but I believe it’s a woeful simplification to the overarching statement made by their work: that humanity is divine- it is both heaven and hell, and can assume unlimited faces to inflict whatever blessing and cruelty has haunted western civilization in the form of myths and stories.
So given the unerring clarity of Gira’s words, the talented players he has at his disposal, and the wide span of songwriting styles at his disposal, to hear him call The Seer the culmination of everything he’s ever done honestly terrified me. I was already excited for the new record from the clips of new songs that appeared on youtube, but I have no idea what ever could come from such a proclamation. I wasn’t sure to be scared if he ended up right or wrong. Which was preferable.
He’s right. He’s absolutely right. It is the culmination of his life’s work, and in a sense of western music.
Even in the callous sense of checking off what sounds or genres are present on the record, The Seer cannot help but impress. In order, the record moves through ideal but personal takes of chorale, trance, blues, progressive, funk, noise, folk, country, krautrock, ambient, pop balladry, and closing on a terrifying mix of post-rock and the brutal unforgiving music that first spawned from the early days of Swans. It’s only able to do this by transcending the identity of “Swans,” which is somehow accomplished in the center of the title track.
Beyond that, it is a tremendous piece of art. The pieces fit together so wholly and fully that it’s difficult to imagine it was anything but purposeful. It’s even phrased beautifully, of powerful images that implore the listener to draw the connections without ever demanding the connections be recognized. It can exist as a concept album for whatever it is that haunts you about the world (like my take on the apocalypse of rock, or as some dire religious struggle), or it can exist as two hours of impossibly perfect music.
Perfect. That was the first word that came to me after first completing the record, as I sat, dripping sweat, my chest left hollowed by the absence of their thunder. It has hung with me with every successive listen, through expressing my joy to friends, and through addressing the complaints of skeptics. I will now concede the following point: it is not the best record to just put on and cruise around town. Even so, if you have at any point liked songs, you are doing yourself a disservice to not hear this album.
WINNER: “The Seer” by Swans
WHY: The Seer is clearly the ultimate Swans record, and it’s more than that as well. It may be the new high watermark for the Album of Songs as an art form.
Fermata over Whole Rest 