Customer Reviews

Various Failures

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4 star:		(4)
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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.

I've owned this double album for 3 years and only love it more with the passage of time. Not since the band "Neurosis" have I felt music more in the quietest places of my mind that continue to encant such calm and depth in the loudest crashing of thunder.

Swans are amongst the deepest places you'll ever look for music and you'll find a world of music open to you. You will find Michael Gira and his "Angels of Light" and just the end of last year you get to hear Jarboe with Neurosis(the 2 making a perfect collaboration) and many solo albums and projects along the way for both Jarboe and Michael Gira.

The music of Swans in this album is so warm. Swans become the warmth of the darkness. Never a cold and lonely place to be. The acoustic guitars, keyboards and drums all lend so much while the beats will pound like thunder and the gentle elegant melodies give way to an enrapture of intensity completely unexpected lending the listener a new set of ears.

Most people that are new to Swans will like them in the most uncertin way. Like all things that are worth thier time should require time, Swans go slowly and directly into your darkness and remain as friends.

This 2-disc compilation draws from the Swans albums Burning World (1989), Love of Life (1991) & White Light from The Mouth of Infinity (1991) plus the EP single Love Will Tear Us Apart (1988), as well as Ten Songs for Another World (1990) by the side project World of Skin. It also includes a few previously unreleased tracks. The music is spread over two discs:

1 YELLOW DISC

Here one finds the chilling interpretation of Nick Drake's Black Eyed Dog with Jarboe's howling vocals as hair-raising as on Mother Father from The Great Annihilator. Eerie breathing and disembodied electronic barking add another layer of unease; this song makes your hair stand on end. If the Edvard Munch painting The Scream was given a voice, this is exactly what it would sound like.

For merciful contrast, there are gentle ballads with beautiful melodies like The Golden Boy that was Swallowed by the Sea sung by Mike and Jarboe's The Other Side of the World and the achingly beautiful I Remember Who You Are where her voice excels as a vehicle of tenderness, empathy and hope.

On the eerie number Her, Michael's lullaby like introduction is followed by a harsh, atonal & intrusive rock riff that gives way to the voice of a teenage girl talking about summer, her boyfriend Charlie, the Atlanta International & Monterrey pop festivals, musicians like Janis Joplin, The Who, Johnny Rivers and The Grateful Dead, with period radio commercials and static noise in the background.

Michael sings The Child's Right, a desolate ballad about death and decay with hints of religious imagery and Blind that sounds like a take from the Burning World sessions. A moving melancholic ballad, it deals with one of his favorite subjects, alcoholism in lines like" "Because when I'm drinking, I'm out of control/No I was never young, and nothing has transpired/And when I look in the mirror, I feel dead, I feel cold, I am blind."

This much abbreviated version of The Most Unfortunate Lie is deceptively titled "instrumental," as it does contain a few lines of Michael's vocals and the spectral children's voices.

This disc's total running time is 75:52.

2 RED DISC

This one opens with Michael's harrowing Failure and is followed by Identity, another strange one with a little boy reciting a weird spiritual poem over riffs rife with minor-chords and snatches of distorted male vocal.

Breathtaking is the word for their interpretation of Steve Winwood's Can't Find My Way Home, hypnotically and spookily sung by Jarboe over eerie instrumentation. Jarboe's version of Joy Division's Love Will Tear Us Apart is a further masterpiece.

The haunting Jarboe track Drink To Me Only With Thine Eyes is the poem To Celia by Ben Jonson (1573-1637) set to hymnal music. A cursory glance at Jonson's lyrics reveals nothing overtly spiritual; the theme seems to be romantic love. Still, there are ambiguities and the melody undoubtedly originates from the Olde English Hymne tradition. This version has lost its Lord's Prayer ending

One of Michael's moments of extremity is the devastating God Damn The Sun, where he out-Cohens Leonard on a slow, meandering ballad with an achingly beautiful tune. On the previously unreleased Picture of Marianne, he gently interprets this poignant and gentle ballad.

This disc also has Jarboe in oneiric mood appearing as the angel of morphia, luring you into the other-world of the melodious Dream Dream. More of her work with Swans & World of Skin is available on the Mystery of Faith album.

The red disc's total running time is 78:02.

The fold-out leaflet contains the lyrics to all the songs plus 5 full-color illustrations by Deryk Thomas. I have deducted one star for important omissions. Various Failures is an impressive achievement but imperfect archive since a few of my favorite songs from the period have been omitted: Saved from The Burning World, The Sound Of Freedom from Love Of Life & Everything For Maria from the 3rd World of Skin album.

That's the correct title of the last song on the first disc. You can't find it anywhere else these days, just here. It's right up there with "Miracle of Love". YOU NEED TO HEAR THIS SONG, SWANS FANS. Jealous Yahweh, deserting his people in Old Testament style. That's the spirit of the symbolism here, the true feeling of nothing left and the questioning of all dreams and hope. Such beautiful bitterness, for it's absolute desolation, as you've maybe never heard. And such poetic economy in the transition from literal circumstance to expansive existential doubt. I have all Swans' albums and this is one of the most amazing songs ever. A Top-5 Swanssong, this offering. No one has done this kind of stuff like Gira, that I've heard. "Was he ever born in blood..." See my other review for other stuff.

This is a great introduction to the Swans' particular style of gothic folk-rock. It is an almost perfect overview, marred only by the lack of one of my favorites (cry jane mary) and the strange choice to use Jarboe's version of 'Love Will Tear Us Apart.' Still, if you want to know what the Swans were about, this is a great place to start.

The Swan's apocolyptic epic double disc collection is arranged like a regular lp and the illusion holds up well. Gira's vocals are wise but ultimately souless, sounding like the weary teachings of an empty shell of a man who has lost all reason to live years ago. His lyrics paint a portrait of a world where the sun, love, and God no longer offer comfort, a world where human life is nothing but a meaningless blip on the radar of time and nature. During her songs, Jarboe's more expressive operic vocals often serve as a break from Gira's nihilism though she is equally effective accenting his songs with atmospheric haromonizing.

While the vocals are at the forefront, the Swans are almost just as interesting musically. Employing a minimalist approach the music often lurches with dark strumming accoustic guitars and ringing synth melodies that alternate between eerie and hammering. The result is a menacing intimate sound that threatens to suffocate the listner like a slowly lowering ceiling. This album can indeed be truly terrifing.

In her cover of "Black Eyed Dog", Jarboe transforms the dreary saddness of the original into a hellish, assaulting nightmare. While songs like "Was He Ever Alive?" are just as unsettling in a more unnerving cerebral way with Gira's hollow voice pondering the finality of death and the insignifance of life while the God of the Old Testament offers no answers, just violence and cruelty as he unleashes his curses on the Egyptians.

But there are rare moments of beauty as well. "Picture of Maryanne" in particular rises out of the oceans of despair with its haunting strings and gentle tribal percussion as Gira's vocals are delivering in a more soothing comforting manner. The country ballad, "God Damn the Sun" is indeed mournful but there is hope in that Gira is expressing a human emotion that he previously seemed incapable of. While Jarboe's memorable cover of "Love Will Tear us Apart" is shockingly bittersweet and peaceful. And of course the opener, "Miracle of Love" is a masterpiece of rising tension that greatly contrasts with the rest of the album's deliberate sluggish pace.

But the true highlight is the powerful "Blind", dealing with regret and the enlightenment of age. Gira's vocals are mostly a stoic drone but when he sings "I'm Blind" his voice breaks into this single delicate held note that manages to convey all the sorrow the protagonist/himself has been carrying over the years. This song alone makes this album a worthy purchase but buyer beware, the entire album is a very tough and patient listen that you have to be in a certain kind of mood for.

Good thing I'm not speaking, but writing here. This double album has not left my cd player since I bought it around 3 months ago. At first, I was a little distraught. My fave Swans album is by far "The Great Annihilator", and Various Failures seemed to lack the energy of that album... but then, slowly, the thin, dirty veneer of my expectations cracked and began to flake away as moments of sheer brilliance on Failures began to shine through. I could try to sit here and name off all my favorite songs on the album, but it would be easier for you to just look at the track listing above... they're all that good. I will have to say this, though... rarely has a song on any new album I purchase ever become one of my "all-time favorites." Most of my favorites have won their status after months and years of listening for the subtleties, the nuances, the various interpretations of the music in the song. Not this time... listen to "Blind", I implore you. Before I bought this album, I was interested in getting some more Swans music. Now, I am dedicated to having a copy of everything M. Gira and Jarboe have created. I think that says enough.

Ok. Swans are not very known anymore, so maybe i'm writing this review just for people who already know how great they are. Still: this is a very, very fine album, stuffed to the last bit with songs from five or six swans albums between 1988 and 1992, and also some singles from the same period. You can't complain about value for money here, over 150 minutes of music on 2 cd's ! There are a couple of very beautiful, haunting songs on this cd indeed ! Try listen to 'Blind', with a great lyric and a heavenly chorus. Try 'The other side of the world', which brings you beauty. Swans are depressing ? Absolutely not ! They make intense en honest music, and that means that their music talks directly to your heart. Great collection, buy it if you like serious music.

i was told by a friend to try "swans", and not look back. i was told to buy "various failures", and ever since then i have embraced swans as true musical genius. with two discs packed with glorious music, this is a---for lack of a better cliche---"must have" album. swans is not for everyone, at first i was lost, confused, uncomfortable (soiling myself during some of the tracks), but after allowing myself to welcome the music and altering my diet to more solid foods, i came to recognize this anthology as a cornerstone of my music library. orchestral, tribal at times, various failures is truly godlike and a great gateway album into the world of swans. greatest track, and possibly one of the greatest songs written, appears at the end of the 1st disc, "blind". it bestows a compassion so deep one needs waders to navigate.

If you've grown weary of the cartoonish spectacle that is Marilyn Manson, and if the antics of the likes of White Zombie, et al, no longer titilate, maybe it's time you gave the Swans a listen. This is genuinely disturbing music at times, and won't be to everyone's liking, but Michael Gira and company were the real deal.

This compilation is an overview of their later output, and is a good place for the uninitiated to start. Check out the great covers of Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart" and the beautiful "Can't Find My Way Home" by Blind Faith.