Mute Vinilo y CD

Review: It's hard not to feel moved by Swans. To quote Wayne's World, it's not just a clever name, but rather a band every bit as graceful yet ferocious, beautiful but strong as the bird borrowed from. Take "Annaline", for example. As the first track-proper of this spellbinding collection it's a stop-you-in-your-tracks masterpiece that could force silence on a stadium despite being softly spoken, subtle and serene. It's a motif the outfit seem focused on for this, their 15th studio album. Even at its loudest, title track "Leaving Meaning" mostly plays out like a deranged sermon in some temple of experimental rock. "Sunfucker", for example, has enough reversed-out refrains to make anyone feel they might be in over their head with forces they can't see, let alone comprehend. "It's Coming It's Real" is a display of dark hypnosis. "The Hanging Garden" paints nervous abstract pictures with psychedelic-leaning guitar hooks and manic vocal cries. Put simply, it's perhaps their tensest, most introverted and spellbinding work to date.

Review: Loudest rock band in the world? Possibly. At one point? Definitely. Feel Good Now certainly proves the theory, with the second live album from Swans, recorded during their 1987 Children of God tour, capturing some of the zeitgeist of seeing them in the flesh. The fact all this was captured using a Sony Professional Walkman only emphasises just how much zeitgeist there was to capture. Remastered for this edition, fans of the grit and heaving atmosphere that came with the original will be glad to know that all the 21st Century bells, whistles, and high tech restoration couldn't make this one sound clean. And we mean that in the best possible way. Running through monstrous track after monstrous track, even heard through the other side of 25 years and without a massive venue rig, it's impossible not to pick up on the sense of immersion that has always defined Swans.