Soundtracks for the Blind

Soundtracks for the Blind
A circle on a cardstock background.
Studio album (double album) by
Swans
ReleasedOctober 29, 1996
Recorded1981–1996
Genre
Length141:37
LabelYoung God
ProducerMichael Gira, Jarboe (track 7)
Swans chronology
Die Tür ist zu
(1996) 		Soundtracks for the Blind
(1996) 		Swans Are Dead
(1998)

Soundtracks for the Blind is the tenth studio album by Swans. It was released as a double CD on October 22, 1996, through Young God Records and Atavistic Records. Soundtracks for the Blind was intended, as suggested by the title, to function as a "soundtrack for a non-existent film." Upon its release, it received widespread acclaim from critics and is hailed as the band's masterpiece. It was the last studio album released by the band until 2010's My Father Will Guide Me up a Rope to the Sky. A reissue of the album was released on July 20, 2018, marking the first time Soundtracks for the Blind was released on vinyl.[1]

Background and recording

After a brief and unsatisfactory major-label association with MCA Records for The Burning World (1989), Michael Gira founded Young God Records in 1991,[2] which granted him full artistic control.[3] Subsequent albums, including White Light from the Mouth of Infinity (1991) and Love of Life (1992), emphasized long-form compositions and interludes.[2][3] By the mid-1990s, Swans had moved toward extended, mood-driven pieces, culminating in The Great Annihilator (1995), which reintroduced aggressive, industrial textures that had characterized their early releases such as Filth (1983) and Greed (1986), while incorporating tribal rhythms.[4] The latter also featured drummer Bill Rieflin, who would be a future contributor in Soundtracks for the Blind.[5]

By 1995, Gira had grown exhausted from the financial and creative demands of maintaining Swans and decided to make their next release a definitive final statement.[2][3] Over the years, he had amassed a large collection of recordings, ranging from handheld cassette tapes and surveillance material to found sounds and multitrack sessions. These included deeply personal family recordings: Jarboe drew upon surveillance tapes left behind by her father, a former FBI agent, which captured both her childhood voice and her mother's dementia, while Gira recorded conversations with his father as he was going blind, material that directly inspired the album's title.[3]

The production of Soundtracks for the Blind relied heavily on these archival sources, some dating back to 1981.[6] Gira moved to Atlanta, Georgia[3] and employed the Sonic Solutions mastering program to assemble the material,[7] combining new performances with old loops, field recordings, and fragments of earlier work.[3][8] Through techniques such as looping, reversing, cross-fading, and layering,[7][9] he sought to create what he described as an "immersive universe" that encompassed the breadth of Swans' stylistic evolution.[3] Soundtracks for the Blind was released on October 26, 1996, under the label Atavistic Records,[10] being the band's tenth studio album.[9]

Musical style

Soundtracks for the Blind is regarded by journalists as Swans' most experimental[6][11] and avant-garde work.[6][12] A double album spanning over 141 minutes, it is the band's longest record.[4] It resists straightforward genre classification;[6][12] critics characterized it as post-rock[9][13][14] and drone music.[9] Sources also described it as a blend between post-rock,[4][6] drone,[3][4][6] ambient,[4][12][14] industrial,[3][8] folk,[3][7] techno,[4][15] gothic rock,[13] and musique concrète.[4][8][14] Stereogum's Aaron Lariviere compared its sound to that of Godspeed You! Black Emperor.[4] Musically, many of the songs are instrumental compositions.[10][13] Kurt B. Reighler of Audio noted that the album avoided conventional verse–chorus structures in favor of experiments with timbre and juxtaposition, citing the transition from "Her Mouth Is Filled with Honey" into "Blood Section" and the "twisted howl" of Jarboe's vocals on "Hypogirl" as notable examples.[16] This non-traditional structure led to critics and Gira himself describing it less as a traditional rock album than as a "soundtrack" to imagined films.[2][3]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[15]
Alternative Press5/5[14]
Chronicles of Chaos8/10[17]
The Daily Evergreen9.1/10[6]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music[18]
Ondarock7.5/10[19]
Ox-Fanzine[20]
Sputnikmusic4.5/5 (2008)[12]
5/5 (2012)[21]
Terrorizer[22]

Soundtracks for the Blind has been met with widespread acclaim from critics. Alternative Press wrote that "Swans' out-and-out noise may have receded into quietude and somnolent hypnoscapes, but this monster of an album will leave ripples pulsing out for many years to come".[14] Nick Terry of Terrorizer magazine wrote, "Gira has painstakingly recorded and produced this magnus [sic] opus with a ferocious attention to detail. Above all, it sounds phenomenal".[22] The magazine later included it in their list of the "100 Most Important Albums of the Nineties".[23]

Kurt B. Reighler of Audio awarded the album a grade of A– for sound and B+ for performance, praising the album as an "ambitious collage" that combined found sounds, tape loops, and studio recordings into a "dense aural mélange". Reighler described the overall effect of the record as "akin to eavesdropping on dozens of psychotherapy sessions", and concluded that although Swans had often been regarded as a difficult band, listeners did not need to understand the emotional impetus behind Gira's music to appreciate its "raw power".[16]

In a retrospective review, AllMusic critic Ned Raggett called Soundtracks for the Blind "[Swans'] best album ever".[15] Raggett ranked the album at number 75 on his list of the best albums of the 1990s for Freaky Trigger.[24] In 2024, Paste ranked Soundtracks for the Blind as the 175th-greatest album of all time.[9]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Michael Gira, unless noted.

Disc One (Silver)
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Red Velvet Corridor" 3:04
2."I Was a Prisoner in Your Skull" 6:39
3."Helpless Child" 15:47
4."Live Through Me" 2:32
5."Yum-Yab Killers"Jarboe5:07
6."The Beautiful Days" 7:49
7."Volcano"Jarboe5:18
8."Mellothumb" 2:46
9."All Lined Up" 4:48
10."Surrogate 2"Gira, Jarboe1:52
11."How They Suffer" 5:52
12."Animus" 10:41
Total length:72:06
Disc Two (Copper)
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Red Velvet Wound"Jarboe2:02
2."The Sound" 13:11
3."Her Mouth Is Filled With Honey"Gira, Jarboe3:19
4."Blood Section" 2:39
5."Hypogirl" 2:44
6."Minus Something"Gira, Jarboe4:14
7."Empathy" 6:45
8."I Love You This Much" 7:23
9."YRP" 7:47
10."Fan's Lament" 1:28
11."Secret Friends"Gira, Jarboe3:08
12."The Final Sacrifice" 10:27
13."YRP 2" 2:09
14."Surrogate Drone" 2:06
Total length:69:31

Personnel

Credits for Soundtracks for the Blind adapted from liner notes.[25]

Swans
  • Michael Gira - vocals, guitar, samples, sounds, loops, producer (all tracks except "Volcano")
  • Jarboe - vocals, keyboards, sounds, loops, producer (on "Volcano")
Guest musicians
  • Joe Goldring - electric guitar, bass guitar (disc one 3, 5, 9, 12; disc two 2, 7, 9, 12, 13)
  • Vudi - electric guitar, acoustic guitar (disc one 3, 5, 9, 12; disc two 2, 7, 9, 12, 13)
  • Larry Mullins - drums, percussion, vibraphone (disc one 3, 5, 9, 12; disc two 2, 7, 9, 12, 13)
  • Cris Force - viola (on "Animus" and "YRP")
Additional musicians, various segments
Technical
  • Billy Anderson - recording and mixing engineer at Coast Recorders, San Francisco, CA
  • Martin Bisi - recording and mixing engineer at B.C. Studios, Brooklyn, NY
  • Larry Lame - recording and mixing engineer at Plastikville, New York, NY
  • Chris Griffin - recording and mixing engineer at Griffin Mastering, Atlanta, GA
  • Andy Ray - live engineer on "Yum-Yab Killers", "I Love You This Much" (segment), "The Final Sacrifice" and "YRP 2"

References

  1. ^ Reid, Mike (May 27, 2018). "Swans album Soundtracks for the Blind to get served up on first-ever hot slice of vinyl, CD reissue with expected condiments". Tiny Mix Tapes. Retrieved August 23, 2025.
  2. ^ a b c d Nasrallah, Dimitri (October 24, 2010). "Michael Gira: From Uncompromising Swans to Ethereal Angels of Light". Exclaim!. Retrieved August 22, 2025.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Amorosi, A.D. (August 16, 2016). "The Making of Swans' Soundtracks for the Blind". Magnet. Retrieved March 7, 2017.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Lariviere, Aaron (November 9, 2012). "Swans Albums From Worst To Best". Stereogum. Retrieved August 22, 2025.
  5. ^ Wuelfing, Howard (January 6, 1997). "Swans Song". Addicted to Noise. Retrieved August 22, 2025 – via Rock's Backpages.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Quinn, Cole (February 23, 2023). "Album review: 'Soundtracks For The Blind' Swans, 1996". The Daily Evergreen. Retrieved August 19, 2025.
  7. ^ a b c Hampton, Justin (January 22, 1997). "Swan Song: The End of the Swans' 15-Year Flight". Washington City Paper. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved September 22, 2014.
  8. ^ a b c Montanari, Dylan (August 9, 2018). "Swans: Soundtracks for the Blind (Remastered)". Spectrum Culture. Retrieved August 22, 2025.
  9. ^ a b c d e Mitchell, Matt (June 3, 2024). "The 300 Greatest Albums of All Time". Paste. Archived from the original on June 3, 2024. Retrieved August 22, 2025.
  10. ^ a b Fine, Jon (February 1997). "SWANS / Soundtracks for the Blind / Atavistic" (PDF). CMJ. Vol. 42. p. 11. Retrieved August 22, 2025.
  11. ^ Reyes-Kulkarni, Saby (April 29, 2017). "Swans / Michael Gira: The Great Annihilator / Drainland". Pitchfork. Retrieved August 22, 2025.
  12. ^ a b c d joshuatree (July 26, 2008). "Swans – Soundtracks for the Blind". Sputnikmusic. Retrieved March 2, 2013.
  13. ^ a b c Terich, Jeff (September 26, 2013). "Beginner's Guide: Swans". Treble. Retrieved August 23, 2025.
  14. ^ a b c d e "Swans: Soundtracks for the Blind". Alternative Press. No. 103. February 1997. p. 55.
  15. ^ a b c Raggett, Ned. "Soundtracks for the Blind – Swans". AllMusic. Retrieved March 2, 2013.
  16. ^ a b Reighler, Kurt B. (February 1997). "Soundtracks for the Blind – Swans" (PDF). Audio. Vol. 81, no. 2. pp. 83–84. Retrieved August 22, 2025.
  17. ^ Lewandowski, Andrew (February 1, 1997). "Swans - Soundtracks for the Blind: Review". Chronicles of Chaos. Retrieved August 20, 2025.
  18. ^ Larkin, Colin (2011). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th concise ed.). Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-0-85712-595-8.
  19. ^ Fabretti, Claudio. "Swans – Liturgie dell'apocalisse". Ondarock (in Italian). Retrieved August 19, 2025.
  20. ^ Hiller, Joachim (2018). "Review: Swans - Soundtracks For The Blind / Die Tür ist zu". Ox-Fanzine (in German). Retrieved August 19, 2025.
  21. ^ Mancuso, Jack (November 8, 2012). "Swans – Soundtracks for the Blind". Sputnikmusic. Retrieved August 19, 2025.
  22. ^ a b Terry, Nick. "Swans: Soundtracks for the Blind". Terrorizer. Archived from the original on January 11, 2017. Retrieved March 2, 2013.
  23. ^ "Rocklist.net....Terrorizer Magazine..." www.rocklistmusic.co.uk. Archived from the original on May 24, 2008. Retrieved February 20, 2019.
  24. ^ Raggett, Ned (November 1999). "75. Swans – Soundtracks For The Blind". Freaky Trigger. Archived from the original on March 5, 2004. Retrieved February 20, 2019.
  25. ^ Swans (October 22, 1996). Soundtracks for the Blind (CD liner notes). Young God Records. YG01.
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