Swans Albums Ranked (including The Beggar) 

Rabbit guy: loneliness, longing, desire, depression. The two burning rabbits together: Found a match, and now you suffer with another person. There is no respite. Life is misery, and misery loves company. That's just my take, from seeing the two album covers.

i’m sorry but the great annihilator that low is unforgivable

Discovering Swans redefined, for me at least, what "heavy" meant in regards to music. Excellent video!

I saw them on the tour when 'Public Castration...' was recorded. It was so packed people could not move and there were people screaming for them to stop, people were crying. It was INSANELY loud and it was almost too much...BTW, I think the track 'Greed' is just beautiful. Melts my heart still.

Swans have somehow changed their sound to an unimaginable degree, but always maintained extreme intensity. It's an amazing accomplishment.

I've never got into swans, but I know their early stuff was a massive influence on one of my favourite bands godflesh. I'll have to give swans a proper listen.

Late comment, but I interviewed Michael Gira during the Burning World/Love Will Tear Us Apart period, and he was SUPER defensive and combative. We were with college radio, and he kept accusing us of loving REM for some reason. I asked him why, and he was, like, "Well, what do YOU listen to?" and was shocked when I replied, "Right now, mostly Nurse with Wound and Prince." When I asked if the Joy Division cover was a conscious attempt to have a hit, he went ballistic. And, of course, later on he admitted it was true, LOL. God, he was so awful, LOL. It was so disappointing because we were all Swans fans. Jarboe was lovely.

I absolutely loved what you said about 'Swans Are Dead', captured absolutely everything I feel about that album

You make a point about the Glowing Man that I've definitely thought about. Swans have mightily struggled to move past that album creatively. The whole trilogy of The Seer, To Be Kind, and The Glowing Man was such a massive creative endeavor, I was convinced Swans would just end it there. Their most recent work definitely isn't bad, but it feels like they're struggling for new ideas.

I love the Burning World, no matter it‘s reputation. After 34 year the album deserves to be rehabilitated and recognized as a classic

Still here at 1h40:14secs, breathtaking personally list... guess I'm a Swans novice cuz only got their The Great Annihilation and Swans Are Dead record upon release in the 90's and watched a lot of their crazy 80's live footage. A weird fascination I got for Swans.

I love how the higher up you get along the list, the more you drop the f bomb. Just goes to show how words can’t do the music of Swans any justice ^^ Great video! Really makes me want to check out more live albums by them. Kinda skipped that part of their discography so far. But I definitely would have put the Beggar higher. Maybe that’s partially due to me being relatively new to Swans (since To Be Kind I’m aware of them) idk but I think it’s so heartfelt and the Death theme gives it such a monumental weight to me, much more than leaving meaning for sure.

My favourite album of theirs is The Seer, while favourite track is either Bring The Sun, or Helpless Child. The former literally would give me out of body experiences, as if I'm grasping and hearing something greater than life itself, probably sounds pretentious af, but it is what it is. It's truly indescribable how good that song is. Helpless child just hits too hard, the lyrics especially. "you drug me with kindness so I can pretend I exist". God damn it. Loved the video, thank you for giving your own thoughts and perspectives on this amazing band's work. It's my favourite music act as well, I usually don't tend to pick favourites when it comes to media, but Swans are just so above anything I've ever listened to (and I've got like 500-600 albums saved on spotify lol)

01. To be kind 02. The Seer 03. The Glowing Man 04. Soundtracks for the Blind 05. White Light from the Mouth from Infinity 06. The great Annihalator 07. The Beggar 08. Leaving meaning 09. Children of God 10. My Father will guide me 11. Filth 12. Love of Life 13. Greed 14. Cop 15. Holy Money 16. The Burning World … just a try 😊. But the Top 10 should be correct.

Incredible video, it's clear you put an immense amount of effort into it. I don't agree with your ranking at all lol, but I feel like I can find a new appreciation for some of my less loved Swans albums and feel inspired to go listen to some of the live stuff I have compiled. Hope this video blows up and godspeed!

Found you through the Death In June videos, glad to see this video, good work. Love Swans.

Great video! I’ll be using it in my continued very slow exploration of Swans and trying to get into them more. It’s daunting

I'm grateful you included the live releases. Omniscience was my gateway into Swans.

Superb heartfelt critique of Swans output.

Amazing video, always good to see people who appreciate every era of swans. gonna give it a try with just studio albums cuz i havent heard every live album 1. Soundtracks for the Blind 2. Children of God 3. White Light from the Mouth of Infinity 4. The Seer 5. Cop 6. The Glowing Man 7/ 8. Greed/ Holy Money (interchangeable) 9. To Be Kind 10. Love of Life 11. Filth 12. The Great Annihilator 13. The Beggar 14. The Burning World 15. Leaving Meaning 16. My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky

Excellent video from a real fan about the formidable task of ranking Swans albums! And I can't resist my Swans top 10: 1. Red Velvet Corridor (Soundtracks For The Blind 1996) 2. Feel Happiness (Swans Are Dead 1998) 3. Killing For Company (The Great Annihilator 1995) 4. Eden Prison (My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky 2010) 5. Just A Little Boy (To Be Kind 2014) 6. Annaline (Leaving Meaning 2019) 7. Screen Shot (To Be Kind 2014) 8. Helpless Child (Swans Are Dead 1998) 9. Avatar (The Seer 2012) 10. The Cloud Of Unknowing (The Glowing Man 2016) Swans Epics: Special mention - Great but due to their length I don’t play often. 1. Blood Promise (Swans Are Dead 1998) 2. Frankie M (The Glowing Man 2016) 3. Bring The Sun/Toussaint L'Ouverture (To Be Kind 2014) 30 minute + epic only Swans could get away with!

Great video mate. Really enjoyed your analysis and takes. Not all I agree with but is subjectively justified very well. Subscribed.

Great video. You did Great Annihilator so dirty 😢😂

I would've agreed with you on the first spot a couple of days ago but now i prefer swans are dead to the glowing man, also hearing you talk about the other live albums i haven't heard yet is making me want to listen to them like right now lmao, great video!!

Good top pick. The Glowing Man is easily the best of "new" Swans. I'm fairly biased toward their pre-hiatus stuff, probably because that's what I grew up with, but I need to re-explore their more recent material.

Great video, really really loved it! I also kinda see what you mean with the Great Annihilator slander, I personally love the album but it being an accessible easy-to-follow goth rock album does take away what makes Swans great in the first place, it honestly doesn’t even sound like them half the time.

Seeing them live in Chicago earlier this month + this video finally got me to get around to the rest of their live albums. Previously, I’d only listened to Public Castration, Anonymous Bodies and Swans Are Dead. I’m so glad I finally did because The Gate and Deliquescence are fucking amazing and strengthens my enjoyment of The Glowing Man. I greatly look forward to the next live release they’re gonna do, as I’d love to really relive the set that I saw and blew me away.

Another great release that I think should be included more often in Swans discussion is body to body/job to job. Such a great collection of previously unheard songs and versions of songs that did get official releases. Surprisingly cohesive as well considering the span of time all the songs come from

Really appreciated the time and effort put into this. Quality ranking

Swans is a difficult band for me to categorise / rank as their output seems both incredibly insular and yet incredibly all-encompassing simultaneously. It's like their music exists in its own universe, and yet it transmits a very basic truth about our own reality. That truth being that the only thing that matters is the moment, and being within it. The past doesn't matter, it doesn't exist anymore. The future doesn't matter, it doesn't exist yet. Only 'now' matters, and life is best lived when 'now' is milked for all its worth. I look forward to watching this video in its entirety. Before I've seen a single minute of it, I know what releases of theirs have impacted the most, and I'm curious to hear about someone else's perspective. EDIT: just finished the whole thing, fantastic video. We share the #1 pick, that album is beyond this universe.

Hugely enjoying these reviews. Hard to encapsulate their vast catalog so kudos for the time and effort.

damn RU-vid. lol. had to catch up on all your vids since the black Sabbath one. hopefully watching all those in the past three days will put you back in my algorithm.

Great Ranking, well done man!

I totally agree with you on the glowing man.

Glowing Man keeps growing on me. Amazing album!

I don't like "The Great Annihilator" too much either, when I did my Swans album-rating I put it on 14. But not because it's accessible, but because it sounds shut-in, the sound is "closed", and it gives me anxiety in a bad way (when listening to music some anxiety is good, and some is bad) even though I love some of the songs on it, "Killing For Company" (thinking of Denis Nielsen, serial killer, and a book about him by Brian Masters that also were called "Killing For Company"), and "Where Does A Body End?" because of the lyrics. So, my list, studioalbums only,: 16 - The Burning World (God Damned The Sun) 15 - Love Of Life (I think Love Of Life and The Golden Boy... are amazing songs, but the rest of the record does not do much for me.) 14 - The Great Annihilator (Killing For Company) 13 - Filth (Stay Here) 12 - Cop (Cop) 11 - Greed (Money Is Flesh) 10 - Leaving Meaning (What Is This?) 09 - The Beggar (The Beggar Lover 3) 08 - Holy Money (Coward) 07 - Children Of God (Sex Love Sex) 06 - My Father Will Guide Me (Little Mouth) 05 - White Light (Power & Sacrifice) 04 - To Be Kind (Bring The Sun) 03 - Soundtracks For The Blind (The Sound) 02 - The Seer (The Seer, or possibly Avatar) 01 - The Glowing Man (The Glowing Man - Masterpiece.) I recently did a Death In June-list too. :)

Great video!

Another great video.Keep up the hard work dude

Good ranking, I really like “Burning World”, I would have ranked it a bit higher.

I heard about Swans a week ago. I did some research to see what album I should start with. I read almost exactly what you said about Children of God. What a fantastic experience. I have not moved on to other Swans albums yet. But I believe White Light from the Mouth of Infinity is the album I will listen to after I digest Children of God.

I know this video is months old, but I saw swans live in St. Louis a few weeks ago and they played the hanging man, it was stunning. I hope you got to hear it live

This video is nearly as long as some Swans albums. Edit: Ty for the heart! This comment also implied that your video is cool and I appreciate the effort and respect the opinions presented. :)

Bro. Are you Platinum Chasers?! I was watching your Type O Negative videos and I'm like there's no way this isn't the same person!

Great Video, man. Gonna see them live tomorrow for the 2nd time this year.

Great stuff man. Feel the same way about Soundtracks for the Blind, it's such a unique album I feel it's impossible to describe really

Good video, I haven't really listened to a lot of the older heavier albums apart from Filth but I fucking love their newer stuff. You've made me pretty interested to listen to Deliquescence now so I'll try and listen to it, there's uploads on youtube but I'm guessing the quality's not gonna be great

You and I must be on the same wavelength... Glowing Man is my favorite album of theirs as well.

Really loved this video and going into the live albums and EPs! I recently finally did a deep listen of my own (Havent heard everything but have heard a lot). Here is my ranking that I have posted on AOTY. I am very much more a fan of their modern sound: 1. The Seer (My introduction to Swans and honestly just always have stuck with me) 2. To Be Kind 3. Soundtracks For The Blind 4. Deliquescence 5. The Glowing Man 6. The Gate 7. The Beggar 8. Swans Are Dead 9. The Great Annihilator 10. Omniscience 11. Children of God 12. Leaving Meaning 13. Not Here/Not Now 14. White Light from the Mouth of Infinity 15. We Rose From Your Bed With the Sun in Our Head 16. Die Tur Izt Zu 17. My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky 18. Public Castration Is A Good Idea 19. Holy Money 20. Filth 21. Young God EP 22. Greed 23. Swans EP 24. Anonymous Bodies in an Empty Room 25. Love of Life 26. Feel Good Now 27. Kill the Child 28. Love of Life/Amnesia (Ep? Single?) 29. The Burning World 30. A Scew Ep 31. Cop 32. Oxygen EP 33. Time Is Money (Bastard) 34. Real Love

took a lot of strength not to click off the video when u put the great annihilator where you did

Do you have a spotify? Im really into your music taste and i was wondering that if you had like playlists or something like that on any music platforms

I know Gira hates "Burning", but it is one of my favorites! I have an original LP

Just discovered your channel good luck with gaining subs

I am just happy that The Burning World wasn't your least favorite studio album.

Do you have any thoughts on Angels Of Light? And if so are you planning on making a video on that band at some point?

My list: 1) The seer 2) Soundtracks for the blind 3) Filth 4) To be kind 5) The great annihilator (yes) 6) White light from the mouth of infinity 7) The glowing man 8) The beggar 9) Children of god 10) Cop 11) Leaving Meaning 12) My father will guide me up a rope in the sky 13) Love of life 14) The burning world 15) Holy money 16) Greed I really dislike greed and holy money, I like everything else

My friend's mom called SWANS "evil ooze music." I've been hooked ever since.

I watched your death in june video a while ago and enjoyed it, but you just got a sub from me for your love of the swans

One thing i want to say about Not Here/Not Now is that the rendition of Coward on there kicks unreal amounts of ass and might be my favorite version of the song Edit: WTF THAT LONG VERSION OF LOVE OF LIFE IS INCREDIBLE WHY IS IT NOT ON THE ALBUM???

Finally peace is on my personal funeral music too. Good choice!

Very enjoyable vid, thanks

For me it's clearly 1 To be Kind, 2 The Seer, 3 The Glowing man. You are absolutely with what you said about Glowing man and actually I would say also it's their best. But at the end there's this one song that's probably their worst song of their post reunion era, and forgive me, but it's Frankie M. I hate this song. I really really hate it. It destroys the perfection of the album so much. And I can't even say why I hate it, but I really hate it. And I would rank Leaving Meaning much higher. As you said, the Glowing man is the essence of their whole work. And it was ready to close this chapter, because I couldn't imagine how to go on this way just one more step foreward. And LM is the best possible way to move on on a different path without ignoring where Swans came from. And of course Sunfucker and Hanging man are two of Swans best songs ever. I was a teenie in the 80ies and I know Swans from a german radio show that played once a week great independent, punk, industrial, postpunk, music. And the first Swans Songs I heard, were from their brutal phase. I don't know exactly which ones but I loved it and I loved the outstanding power which they had. When the Jarboe/Piano phase started, I was done with the band. I didn't know anything about their 90ies releases. And when Gira reunited Swans 2010 I was blown away by their new album. That was the time when I had a first listen to Soundtracks and Dead. And that blew me away.

Love SWANS

Love of life

Some notes while I happily wade though this when I can- 1- Great Annihilator is a fine album, but it's easily one of the more accessible Swans album. I like it but it's def not my favorite. Killing for Company is a banger, though. 2- I'm not a fan of Leaving Meaning. It's ok but not a big fan at all. To be fair, it would be hard for anything to follow up The Seer and the two that followed it. 3- Filth is my number one, followed closely by White Light. I usually don't prefer deluxe editions, but had to get it with Filth. Sensitive Skin is a must. 4- A respectable listing. I'll admit I have not listened to much of their live recordings. I'll start delving into those. Man, this must've been quite an effort. I put Swans in the same general category as Nurse With Wound. Not everyone gets it and it's a heck of a thick group to get into, but worth it in the end.

It took me a while to get it. Children of God actually clicked . Gothy. Kinda of Jazzy , heavy . Sums up that Beautiful Creature with a violent temperament statement Gira made of why he called his band “swans”

Specifically clicked on this hoping to hear someone else gush about The Great Annihilator, hahaha

I've always thought Love of Life is very underrated tbh. Not as great as White Light, but still solid.

Very good list, although I personally disagree with the leaving meaning and the beggar placements. They are some of my favorites. Definitely top 10 for me.

"Building on zhat riff for 9 minutes" lol gy!be does that in World Police and Friendly Fire aswell. Just the same riff over and ober again (but i mean it does have alot of variation) Not dismissing swans or anything rhough theyre like my 3rd or 2nd favouirtr band ever and this list is great

Personally I think Die Tur Ist Zu is great! The German version of All Lined Up is especially spine chilling. Ligeti's Breath / Hilflos Kind is also really good.

This vid is about as long as the average swans album

missing here the 12' version of "love will tear us apart" ⚡️⚡️📣

I listen to a lot of music but for the love of me I can't seem to "get" swans: I can't get a grasp of their records (I've tried their best rated), and despite my love for minimalism the songs seem to go on and on without much of an objective? Idk. My best experience so far was with soundtrack for the blind and Lunacy from the seer. I'll keep on trying though that's for sure

They're my favorite too :]

I’ve just only recently realized that Greed is superior to Holy Money. I used to not like greed but loved holy money. Recently greed finally clicked and I prefer it so much more over holy money now

1 - To Be Kind 2 - The Glowing Man 3 - Children of God 4 - The Great Annihilator 5 - Soundtracks for the Blind 6 - White Light from the Mouth of Infinity 7 - The Seer 8 - Filth 9 - Young God (Ep) 10 - Greed

Couldn't disagree more of your opinions on The Great Annihilator. One of my personal favorites for sure. Totally respect your opinions though and I think the beauty of Swans is that everyone will have different opinions on it all!

Do you like current 93?

Dude first swans ep rocks

I will give Swans another go after watching this. There is something very American sounding in their records that just feels out of place for some reason, maybe because I associate it with everything that USA stands for. It's like if PJ Harvey was American and had influences from there, it wouldn't be the same.

Good ranking until you put the great annihilator that low

My favorite band too. Absolutely love them. S*x god s*x is my favorite song

dude, where can i find ''the gate''?

Hey I am a big fan of your channel and decided to make my own ranking. Definitely different than yours but hope you like it (put the link in reply)

25. The great annihilator?? WTF

We the listeners of such an infuencial band as the Swans have the right to our oppinion/insight about their records, but in the case of this ranking i might say that it is a pity that 'My father...' or 'The great annihilator' are in such low positions. 'Greed' and 'Holy Money' should also be on higher places. Glad that 'Children of God' is on top, but this one is just one of the best records ever made in the history of popular music.

I'll keep watching, but putting Love of Life on the ass-end of things is a red flag. Edit: Then next is Burning World? Wow. How is this your favorite band?

Strong welsh accent

The Seer #1 To Be kind #2 Glowing Man #3 Soundtracks for the Blind #4 White light #5, the rest I don't care for. That's me. I don't find The Seer exhausting in the least, it's one of the most cathartic and therapeutic albums I've ever heard. As it To Be Kind, but not quite as much.

I'll concur on The Great Annihilator being their most approachable rock record. It's almost a shoegaze album, like it reminds me a lot of MBV oddly. I love it though! It was the first album of theirs that gave me an in, and honestly almost everything I've heard after is on par or better. My top 5 would be Great Annihilator, The Glowing Man, The Seer, Children Of God, and Soundtracks For The Blind.

How on Earth White Light was left outside top ten is a mystery to me. By far the best Swans album of all times.

14:01 didnt expect annihilator to be this low... i dont even want to imagine how bad the list is going to be lmao byeeee

Jeez dude, go easy on the swearing. I'm not a prude, but it'll be much more enjoyable with much less of the "fucking". It doesn't help your eloquence. Otherwise a great video, I appreciated it ✌️

The Great Annihilator needs waay more love tho...but to each their own. Fantastic band.

Love of life

We the listeners of such an infuencial band as the Swans have the right to our oppinion/insight about their records, but in the case of this ranking i might say that it is a pity that 'My father...' or 'The great annihilator' are in such low positions. 'Greed' and 'Holy Money' should also be on higher places. Glad that 'Children of God' is on top, but this one is just one of the best records ever made in the history of popular music.