To Be Kind is the thirteenth studio album by American experimental rock band Swans, released on May 12, 2014. A double album, it was recorded by producer John Congleton in Texas. The songs were developed during the band's 2012 and 2013 tours. The deluxe edition includes a live DVD of the band's performance at the 2013 Primavera Sound festival in Barcelona. The album received widespread critical acclaim, continuing a string of well-received albums from the band. The album peaked at number 37 on US Billboard 200, and debuted at number 38 on the UK Albums Chart. Both are the highest chartings that Swans had ever achieved on a studio album and it is the first time that the band cracked the top 40 in both countries. Benjamin Bland of Drowned in Sound gave the album a 10/10 score and stated, "This is an album that emphasises rather than establishes Swans' reconfirmed position at the top of the experimental rock tree, but that doesn’t make it any less of a thrill." He further commented, "Now that this mission has been completed there is space for To Be Kind, and future Swans records to affirm, rather than prove, that Swans are, and perhaps always have been, the greatest rock group on the face of the planet." Writing for Rolling Stone, Kory Grow compared the album to The Seer, as well as the 1996 effort Soundtracks for the Blind, noting how "Swans' sound has evolved so that they "don't just crush—they hypnotize".
This was a wild ride, and I may have found a new band that I love. This is probably the most experimental rock album that I've ever heard, or at least the most experimental that actually hit the target. I loved this album and will be listening to it for a long time.
Mad as a box of frogs, but a lot more fun. Seems to be trying to be all the styles and genres, often within the same song. Perhaps not an essential listen, but unique, interesting, and entertaining. Sometimes, that is enough.
This is an album that really gets someone like Anthony Fantano ~fluttering~. Pretty fun 2 hours.
This album reminds me of being in my last year of college and getting really into Anthony Fantano’s YouTube channel. A rough time for all involved but a stunning album. A droning and hypnotic 2 hours of purgatory that feels like you’re waiting to explode
I don’t really know why but I had a different expectation of what Swans were. I thought they were one of the Gallagher’s bands after Oasis. No idea why I thought that. Turns out I was wrong. Who knew? I enjoyed some compositions more than others. Sometimes I thought it was brilliance and sometimes I thought it was noise. I did it a disservice and listened to it on my phone and not my main system. I’ll have to try and use a bigger sound next time. This needs another listen or too before I really know how it lands.
I've really never listened to Swans before, but color me intrigued after this one. I'm generally a fan of experimental rock, and this hit the sweet spot for me. Reminds me of Godspeed You Black Emperor in places, but they definitely have their own thing going. I'm going to have to check out their other stuff and see how far the magic spreads 4/5
My goats
I swear I’d listened to this one before but it looks to have slipped past me. I was familiar with the more accessible tracks (if you can call them that) like ‘Screenshot,’ but had never done a full run through. Though there was much more silence than I would’ve liked in an album that runs over 2 hours, I loved the agonizing builds that ultimately exploded into discord and carefully-structured chaos. Two hours seemed to slip right by, and when the LP focuses in it’s almost a hypnotic experience. Even with its early-era noise additions, the main 1001 sorely lacks in more experimental, confrontational albums like this that are earning modern classic status, so I’d say this was worth the add.
Rating: 7/10 Best songs: Screen shot, She loves us, Oxygen
If OP can supply the heroin (and the childcare) I might just be able to make it through the 2 hour run time. It’s a bit like the Trainspotting sound tracks, minus the fun bits.
Way too long.
Big ass album, huge, large even. Calling this a challenging listen is putting it mildly. There's a song on here that's longer than some entire albums. Michael Gira creates music by picking paper slips from a hat containing the words "Sun", "Baby", "God" and "Blind" on them, yelling them, then grunting for 30 minutes while every instrument ever invented plays at the same time. I have no fucking idea what this dude is on most of the time, but it still manages to be completely engrossing.
I’m not sure why but this is the first album In the awhile where I’ve poured myself a whisky and sat in front of my proper hifi system to listen to on a Saturday night and wow I was blown away. The sound quality the building of tension absolutely brilliant completely sucked me in. My only complaint is 2 hours is far too long for an album.
OK, so just yesterday I marked down an album for being too long. This is too, but, I just like it better.
This kind of experimental drone rock isn't my kind of thing
This is boring, sometimes annoying, and always too long. I listened to two hours of this nonsense and can’t recall a single bit. Just nonsensical screaming. The production and instrumentation were good. Vocals and lyrics did not stand out. Songwriting seemed experimental with no real purpose. I lost to much time to this one. 2/5
2 discs for 2 hours and 1 minutes uhm did not finish
I tried, I really tried. But it’s a no from me.
I'd been wanting to listen to this album for years. I listened. I never will again.
Wikipedia says this is experimental rock. I’d say this experiment is a success! I liked the sort of avant garde-meets-Nick Cave vibe a lot. I would totally give this 4 stars except that it’s OVER two hours long. So, to whomever submitted this: I have two tickets that I bought here. I’d like to give them to you, so that you can take a flying fuck
Not without interest, but on the balance not for me. The vocals didn't do a lot for me and the protracted noise events wore thin. I don't regret the listen though.
The fact swans has been releasing music since the late 80s is pretty crazy. Even crazier is it took them 30 years to conjure up this prog/avant garde rock album that really made them more relevant. Maybe due to Fantano’s love of this album. If it wasn’t so long I would have listened to this more than a couple times. It’s not a bad album by any means, very experimental and unique. Just hard to grasp for my generic ears. Should listen to it more but we’ll see 6.3/10
Idk man
Experimental rock, noise rock, drone, art rock. Le iba a poner un 3 pero al final es tan largo y taaaaaaan machacón que se me ha hecho bola. Un 2.
Okay but far too long
Every idea in this album could have been covered in about 15 minutes. This may be the most repetitive album I have ever heard.
I've only generated 13 user albums so far and this is the 5th or 6th on that is 2 hours long.... This maybe would've been a 2 or 3 for me if this album was a reasonable length, but it just went on forever until I grew to despise it.