ADM Chart topper

The Seer

Swans

The Seer

Second album since reforming in 2010 from the post rock New York outfit fronted by Michael Gira

ADM rating[?]

8.3

Label
Young God
UK Release date
27/08/2012
US Release date
28/08/2012
  1. 10.0 |   Drowned In Sound

    The Seer is the culmination of Gira’s 30-year-journey; his finest two hours, if you will
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  2. 10.0 |   Sputnik Music (staff)

    The Seer is everything we could have hoped for – it is Swans, standing proudly and unabashedly at the top of their game after nearly thirty years. Don’t be surprised if everything else falls timidly under Swans’ massive shadow in 2012
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  3. 10.0 |   No Ripcord

    The Seer is 30 years’ worth of effort, a unique and exciting height earned after decades of creation, experimentation and unconventional musical disassembly
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  4. 10.0 |   A.V. Club

    Swans has never traveled a straightforward, clean, or uninterrupted path. But with The Seer, one thing is certain: Even during its quietest lulls, Gira has never sounded louder
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  5. 9.0 |   BBC

    The Seer might not be the album you spend most time with this year – it’s too emotionally demanding for heavy rotation – but it’s one you’ll be listening to for years to come
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  6. 9.0 |   The Quietus

    A neo-classical work of sophisticated aggression and accomplished grace
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  7. 9.0 |   Loud And Quiet

    This gargantuan, cancerous, post-human musical supernova is one gruesome two-disc mother-fucker that requires some long, hard listening before it slaps you with its ecstatic, tantric pay-off
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  8. 9.0 |   Pitchfork

    For 30 years Swans have challenged the boundaries between beauty and ugliness, music and noise, catharsis and abuse. To borrow a verb from their own violent, polarized world, The Seer is the album that transcends them
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  9. 9.0 |   Beats Per Minute

    There still aren’t any other bands out there quite like this
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  10. 9.0 |   Prefix

    Swans have enjoyed a renewed lease on life for two years now, but it's The Seer that will truly pull the seminal group out of its own considerable shadow
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  11. 9.0 |   Consequence Of Sound

    The Seer is more precise than just a tsunami of dynamic shifts. It’s wily, cunning, and aims to pull out the ecstasy hiding down in the guts of everyone, no matter if it’s uplifting or wretched
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  12. 9.0 |   All Music

    The Seer is unquestionably a work of ecstatic beauty; it encompasses everything because it is everything. It references the aesthetic developed by Swans, and moves it past current musical boundaries and onto a new sonic frontier, where they stand, as they have always stood, alone
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  13. 9.0 |   The Line Of Best Fit

    If you’re this way inclined, nothing else in your record collection will come close to The Seer’s power, intelligence, or primal energy. I recommend it as vehemently as I warn you of its existence
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  14. 8.0 |   Mojo

    A two-hour pummel-athon. Be afraid. Print edition only

  15. 8.0 |   The Skinny

    These songs will likely continue to mutate at the band's cathartic live shows, but as it stands The Seer already has much to offer, fusing together aggression and grace with thunderous results
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  16. 8.0 |   Spin

    It's all willfully abrasive, unflinchingly depressing, occasionally tedious, and intermittently triumphant — but, hey, that's life
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  17. 8.0 |   PopMatters

    A brave record, one that at times threatens to lose its hold on you, but in the end one that manages to be self indulgent without being self serving
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  18. 8.0 |   The Guardian

    The Seer won't be for everybody, but deserves to win new converts
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  19. 8.0 |   NME

    Swans will take you to a place beyond good and evil. Print edition only

  20. 8.0 |   Independent on Sunday

    Over two hours, their 12th album covers all points from brutality to beauty in pursuit of epiphanies
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  21. 8.0 |   Slant Magazine

    The band can be soothing, or they can be monstrously dissonant, but they're always interesting, a consequence of a sound that's constantly at war with itself
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  22. 7.6 |   Paste Magazine

    The key to The Seer‘s delicate noise-beauty contrast is its sense of direction. It’s what keeps the album’s three crazy-long epics (particularly the half-hour-long title-track) from fading into wallpaper or bleeding out from excess
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  23. 7.5 |   Under The Radar

    The fascinating thing about this record is the way Gira and his massive band of young ringers weave in elements from throughout his substantial musical journey without feeling like they're throwing in the kitchen sink
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  24. 7.0 |   Uncut

    Gira's voice has weathered grandly, as black and musty as the stub of a Cuban cigar. Print edition only

  25. 7.0 |   Bowlegs

    What you’re treated to on this album is a retrospective in a state of total reverie. Rarely can bands pull this off, nor are they brave enough to, but Swans are not in the business for short-term gain – they’re in for the long haul
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  26. 7.0 |   Rolling Stone

    Swans make their grandest statement yet
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  27. 7.0 |   Blurt

    It's everything for which Swans stands wrapped up in one intense package
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  28. 6.0 |   The Scotsman

    Rewarding, if you can handle it
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  29. 6.0 |   Clash

    It’s a bold and stark opus worthy of attention, if your attention span is long enough
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