Customer Reviews

Soundtracks for the Blind

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

As the old reviewers' cliché goes, Soundtracks for the Blind is a "sprawling masterpiece." Over more than 120 minutes, Swans give up the ghost in a most magnificent series of sobs. If you can bear it, Soundtracks is best appreciated in one listening session, however masochistic that may seem.

The two CDs contain a vast orchestral piece built around the eerie sound of the drone, interspersed with beautiful songs and recorded voices held together by cinematic fragments and interludes. The sound moves from the Wagnerian symphonic to the most overwhelming heavy rock, as on the live track YRP, with many interweaving textures in between. Of course, this music can be emotionally overpowering in its relentless despair, but it also contains beautiful moments of resignation and transcendence.

My personal favorites on the "Silver" CD include Helpless Child with its powerful juxtaposition of utter desolation & courageous affirmation of life, the surprisingly catchy ironic techno of Volcano with Jarboe's acerbic observations on rock stardom, and the moving How They Suffer, which contains two taped conversations - the first a monologue by Gira's father in which he discusses losing his sight, the second between Jarboe and her aged mother, on her deteriorating health.

The resigned tone of these voices encapsulates the mood of the album. Swans have always been experts at transforming sadness/horror into beauty and suffering into transcendence. Most chilling of all, this spooky, atmospheric version of All Lined Up is much grimmer than the one on Gira's Drainland album. On the "Copper" CD I love The Sound above all - 13 minutes of sonic splendor - and the atypically joyful, even rousing, instrumental called Blood Section. It's like the glorious Warm on The Great Annihilator, but without the menacing undertones.

On the rare The Body Lovers album, Gira went even deeper into uncharted territory. The flipside to this morbid but moving music is his post Swans project, Angels of Light, whose music is much more accessible although not always lighter in mood. Swans will always remain my favorite band among a select group of artists hard to classify together by musical style only: John Cale, Jane Siberry, Richard Thompson, Peter Murphy, Leonard Cohen, Kevin Coyne, Nick Cave, Nick Drake & Nico. Soundtracks for the Blind is both an epitaph & monument to one of the most extraordinary bands of the 20th century. Long may they live in solo projects and in The Angels of Light.

When I was first introduced to the Swans, I was blown away by their grasp on the beautiful and the errie. My introduction was The Great Annihilator, which still holds a special place in my heart for it's pure grime and sludge of accoustic terror. But, on a limb I grabbed this up, which I was told wasn't that good, and was the Swans' last disc. Who ever told me that, obviously didn't hear "Helpless Child", a haunting song which makes you feel that you could possibly be at the end of your rope. The Swans' last stand is as mighty as any. It's true a few tracks are a bit long, but besides that, a great effort and a great way to end a carreer.

The Swans final album manages to keep every promise made, from the early hardcore industrial noise to the lyrical melody of their later work. "Soundtracks for the Blind" manages to bring all the elements of the Swans previous sounds into one album. For 2 months, I could not stop listening to "Soundtracks. Compelling, trance-like, the Swans shine and surpass themselves with this final release.

Sorry if some people don't get this album, but Swans at their best are the best, and this is their best. I know they commit the sins of self-indulgence and self-absorption like no one else in music, but when they nail the point just so, they nail it like no one else, and some embarrassing purple prose is a small price to pay for such rapture. If you don't want to listen to "Helpless Child", all fifteen minutes plus of it, at least ten times in a row, then I guess you just ain't feeling it. So move on and leave room for the rest of us!

as you watch the world light up with fire, as you watch the buildings crumble into the sea, as you sit alone in your closet, hoping the spiders can't reach you, this is the album to have as your soundtrack...these two artists have for several years now shown humanity it's ugly face and the music made the moment poignant and self gratifying, this cd is their last, the tour was the last...what a beautiful way to say goodbye...

This is one of my favourite albums of all time. I guess I'm one of those people who LOVE the music, the tones, the voice, the ambiance. Saw them live in Philly way back in the early 2000's or was it the late 1999's... anyway, I sold my car with "Visualize Total Annihilation" as the bumper sticker. White Ford LTD, 1984. So if you see it, honk and remember THE SWANS!

I was fortunate to hear this album when I first did. This was the last of the Swans albums I've purchased that aren't deleted. I listened to this the night after a hangover and my body and mind were limp. I listened to both CD's of this album back to back and discovered another side of Swans. There is no simple way to maufactuare a thought of this album other then its truely a brialliant way to say goodbye. This album will take you through the clouds(not unlike the pictures in the sleeve insert) and then it will remind you of the good old days and how Swans can and already have said goodbye to us from time to time.

Listening to "Soundtracks for the Blind" can find you in the origin of your thoughts as it seems to trikle through your own sine waves. You must be patient, you must be ready to be patient and then this album will take you on a alienating and then homecoming journey throughout. Like lift off and safe landing over and over again till the CD spins out.

This is the most fully realized Swans album and maybe my favorite. It magically evokes not just difficult emotions, but the experience of consciousness at its many limits. I've gotten a ton out of it. It's mature and open to your own responses. It provokes interesting emotions and thoughts. It's what genuine art is about. Try it.

It's also, while rarely raging or indulgent, the most extreme Swans album. Gira himself concedes that he's often overworked albums in the studio. Which is why I prefer, say, the half-baked World of Skin (which has some failures on it but is often brilliant, immediate, and provocative) to, say, Children of God, with which Skin is usually packaged. Critics usually see Children as far more serious and successful than Skin artistically but I rarely listen to Children. Much of it seems overproduced and "closed"-sounding: there's almost no way for the listener to take the music personally and get anything serious out of it for himself or herself. You can just participate vicariously in Gira's desperation, confessions, and rage. It's a kind of "art porn." I know maybe that's the point. But Soundtracks for the Blind takes overworking beyond sterility/art porn to some kind of indescribable realization. Beautiful and compelling.

Wonderful and terrifying. An excellent farewell from SWANS to their fans. This piece has had me groping for sanity...haunting me. From the beginning of their 15 year career, this has to be one of their most potent works. It never gets boring. Very eerie, much of the music sampled from their vast tape collection, it comes out very unique. One of my favorite albums of all time, this album has set me on a different musical path.

Swans power has never lied in their lyrics. Quite frankly, I find the band to be lyrically deficient. The power of Swans lies in their innovative sound. Soundtracks from the blind wavers between intoxicating and devastating. In the Sound, Michael Gira seems to be trying to communicate all of those ideas that have never worked well in words. Helpless Child, a fifeen minute long opus, turns midway from a simple song into a loud opressive journey through sound. Swans have finally made an album that breaks all of the standards.