HOLY MONEY

From first listen, it becomes highly apparent that 'Greed' and 'Holy Money' were both recorded in the same sessions, as both have a very empty, distant sound to them, with much of the intensity coming from the emotions, rather than the music itself, which is very heavy, but nowhere near as nasty sounding as their first 2 albums. On top of this, what makes it even more apparent is the fact that 2 of the tracks are just remade versions of songs from 'Greed'. I personally find this album to have much less impact and also be generally of lower quality.

The opener, as is common with 'Swans'' early work, is one of the highlights of the album, making effective use of Jarboe's vocals to create a sound similar to some sort of twisted gospel piece. I particularly love how this is juxtaposed by Gira's standard, deep, moaning voice, creating excellent contrast and making the song sufficiently dark. The outro is also quite notable, with some almost tribal drumming coming through in a short burst of energy, all before petering out and transitioning into 'You Need Me'. This song is the first time we're introduced to Jarboe's vocals in a way where they're actually used as vocals, rather than as an instrument. The song acts somewhat as a precursor to the quieter songs from 'Children Of God' but is overall not quite as good as those, lacking some of the haunting beauty that made songs like 'In Your Garden' so good. 'Fool (#2)' is the first big problem with the album, being an inferior version of 'Greed's' version by adding percussion and a higher prominence of guitars. What made the original so great to me was the unique, eerie atmosphere caused by the lack of usual instruments and it being almost entirely piano driven, which is taken away here and ends up being supremely mediocre. 'A Screw (Holy Money)' stands up much better, being honestly quite a groovy sounding track with some really cool vocal chanting, giving it a fairly unique sound, being much less brutal in any particular way and being somewhat more palatable than usual. 'Another You' is another song that I'm not a fan of, as I do find it to be overlong and not particularly interesting, being another song that's really just mediocre all around. 'Money Is Flesh (#2)' has very little differences from the original,and still sounds just as great as it did on 'Greed', although I can't really say I like it being here, since it's essentially just reusing a track. 'Coward' is definitely one of the best tracks here, with excellent mixing on the vocals, with the unsettling repetition of the phrase "I'm worthless" echoing intensely while various yells are in the background, as a minimalistic beat drives the song.

This is a good album on the whole, despite the couple of issues I have with it, as the overall sound is still dripping with emotion and the depressive angst of 'Greed', combined with an excellently distant, dark, extremely heavy sound. However, the issues the album has definitely do drag it down to some extent, and I find this album in general to be less interesting in its experimentation compared to the aforementioned 'Greed', which ultimately overshadows it.

Best Songs: A Hanging, Coward

Worst Songs: Fool (#2), Money Is Flesh (#2), Another You

Verdict: If you liked Greed, then you're almost certain to like this, as they are extremely similar in both tone and sound. I do personally prefer Greed, but this is nonetheless a fairly good album all around.