Swans: The Seer (3LP, limited edition) [YOUNG GOD]

Why you'll love it

This limited edition 3LP set comes in a three-panel gatefold jacket with a large poster and a download card. The Seer drew wide critical acclaim and landed on many publications' best albums of 2012 lists.

This edition

• 3LP set
• Limited edition
• Three-panel gatefold jacket
• Poster included
• Download card included

About the album

Michael Gira paid for The Seer by selling a live double album, We Rose from Your Bed with the Sun in Our Head, to fans, which is about as direct as patronage gets. He described the result as taking 30 years to make, the culmination of every Swans record before it.

Several of the big pieces, including "93 Ave. B Blues," "The Apostate," "Avatar" and the title track, grew out of tours and rehearsals, while the rest took shape in the studio. The band started in Berlin, at Studio P4 and Andere Baustelle with Kevin McMahon, finished in New York, and Gira spent five months on overdubs. The title track runs past half an hour, building from drone into a roaring, hypnotic surge. For contrast, Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Karen O sings the gentle country lullaby "Song for a Warrior," and former member Jarboe returns to add drone vocals.

The Seer opened a trilogy completed by To Be Kind (2014) and The Glowing Man (2016). It's a lot of record, physically and otherwise; we suggest clearing the evening and possibly the following morning.

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Tracklist

Listen

On Young God Records (cat# YG45), the 2012 album.