Swans – The Beggar (2023)

June 30, 2023

The Beggar has taken up quite a lot of space in my life recently as I have tried to form an opinion on this thing. I think its now been long enough and that I have let it settle in. The first thing that I noticed about The Beggar was how similar it sounded to Leaving Meaning. I felt Leaving Meaning was a bit of a disappointment (moreso because it was following up something as insane as The Glowing Man than because it was terrible), so the first impressions were not great. But, this thing has absolutely grown on me.

Much focus is given to “The Beggar Lover (Three)”, and whilst this isn’t as good as similar stuff from Soundtracks For The Blind or even the Body Lovers CD, it’s still one hell of a trip and I commend Gira for including something like this on the album. It almost acts like a reprise, a medley even, but at the same time is something new and experimental.

As for the album tracks featuring the whole band, my favourites include “Michael Is Done”, “No More Of This” and “The Memorious”. Musically, tracks seem to have a bit more “go” in them than the ones on Leaving Meaning, the drums hit a little harder etc.etc. – but like I said above the same meditative, ritualistic qualities are equal across both of these albums. There is also a streak of finality through the album’s lyrical themes, which gives an unsettling edge to the otherwise mostly peaceful and serene compositions.

Finally, I’ll round this out by saying as always the production is absolutely fucking gorgeous. I wanted to make note of the track but I’ve forgotten – there’s a bit in one song where a grand piano comes in over the cacophony and it’s so beautifully recorded I just wanted to fucking cry. Honestly, the production on this thing is perfect, a phenomenal job of the highest quality and infinite props need to go the studio engineers Ingo Krauss and Doug Henderson.

Where Does A Review End? Why, right here. Cheers.