Swans – Anonymous Bodies In An Empty Room (1990)

May 31, 2023

Anonymous Bodies… has always been my least favourite Swans release. It is the live album that followed The Burning World, and contains tracks from that era as well as some rought outlines of stuff that would come soon after on White Light From The Mouth Of Infinity. Whilst it is interesting to get a view into how the stifled tracks from The Burning World unfolded in a more natural way on the live stage, one cannot escape the fact that this is just a bad bootleg made semi-official. The sound quality is incredibly poor – clear enough perhaps that you can make out what is going on but bereft of any impact or feeling.

Therefore, this leads me to conclude this short review by saying that this is an interesting document for those who are extremely interested in the development of Swans’ sound over this period, and nothing more.