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+.Dd May  5, 2021
+.Dt SWANS-ARE-DEAD 7
+.Os "Causal Agency"
+.
+.Sh NAME
+.Nm Swans Are Dead
+.Nd album by Swans
+.
+.Sh DESCRIPTION
+Swans Are Dead
+is the best Swans album.
+Among my favourites are
+Soundtracks for the Blind,
+To Be Kind
+and Love of Life,
+but Swans Are Dead
+is the one I come back to
+most consistently.
+I'm always in the mood
+to listen to these tunes.
+.
+.Pp
+It's interesting to me
+that I enjoy it so much,
+I think because I had the expectation
+that live albums
+are not of the same quality
+as studio albums,
+but that's just completely untrue
+in the case of Swans.
+The performances are excellent
+and the recording is
+for the most part perfect.
+The album feels live,
+without any distracting deficiencies
+of live recording
+that would take you out
+of just enjoying the music.
+.
+.Bl -ohang
+.It Dq Feel Happiness
+This track feels kind of special
+since it's the only song on the album
+that was never released
+as part of another project.
+I absolutely love this format of song.
+It's like 10 minutes of build
+before any lyrics happen,
+which you only get after
+the wave of the first part
+of the song collapses.
+It bookends the first disc nicely with
+.Dq Blood Promise,
+I think,
+which is sort of the reverse.
+.
+.It Dq Blood On Yr Hands
+This is such a great start
+to the Jarboe-focused
+section of the black disc.
+A cappella apart from the hum
+of the equipment on stage,
+I love this vocal performance.
+I sing this song,
+terribly,
+in the shower.
+The lack of instrumental
+seems to make it stick in my mind even more.
+.
+.It Dq I Crawled
+This is another great vocal performance
+by Jarboe.
+It's so much more dynamic and intense
+than the version of this song
+released much earlier on Young God
+with Gira's vocals.
+I remember seeing a bad comment
+somewhere online
+from someone who couldn't stand
+any Swans song Jarboe sang on.
+They must have never heard
+this version of
+.Dq I Crawled.
+Incredible.
+.
+.It Dq Blood Promise
+My favourite track on
+Swans Are Dead,
+by far.
+I had actually never heard of
+.Dq The Whiffenpoof Song
+until I looked up
+the recording they use
+to introduce this song
+and indicate it's the last of the show.
+Anyway,
+this track highlights
+what makes Swans live albums
+so interesting.
+This performance of the song
+has evolved so much
+from the studio recording on
+The Great Annihilator.
+They share the same lyrics,
+but the earlier version is only 4:15,
+to the live version's fifteen and a half minutes!
+And it sucks me in the whole time.
+As the song winds down
+you can hear an audience member yell,
+.Dq Don't stop!
+and I agree.
+.
+.It Dq The Sound
+One of my all-time favourite songs.
+It's the one that got me to listen to
+Soundtracks for the Blind,
+and might've gotten me into Swans altogether.
+I don't quite remember
+what order I started listening to things in.
+This version of it is great.
+I don't think I could choose
+between this and the studio recording.
+There are just
+two ways to enjoy it.
+I love how frantic the guitars get
+at the height of this track.
+.
+.It Dq I See Them All Lined Up
+This version of the song
+is way more harsh
+than the version on Soundtracks.
+It loses some contrast
+between the verses
+and the explosions of sound
+punctuating them,
+it just hits hard
+the whole time.
+.
+.It Dq Yum Yab
+An absolute banger.
+The drums sound so good on this
+and they really get me moving.
+The whole thing is delightfully nasty and fun.
+.El
+.
+.Pp
+Everything else on the album
+is good too,
+of course,
+I just don't have as much to say.
+There's almost two and a half hours of music
+on this thing!
+.
+.Sh AUTHORS
+.An june Aq Mt june@causal.agency
+.Pp
+I want to try writing
+about different kinds of things here,
+and this is my first attempt
+at doing so.
+There's more music
+I want to write about,
+and maybe some other
+non-computer topics.