Swans Birthing

Critic's Take

Swans' latest, Birthing, reads like a ritualistic obliteration of convention, and the review makes it clear the best tracks are the ones that do most of that heavy lifting - chiefly “The Healers” and “I Am a Tower”. The writer lingers on how “The Healers” lures then obliterates, a scorched-earth grace that short-circuits your faculties, while “I Am a Tower” unfolds as a seismic sermon that pivots into uncanny calm before turning necrotic again. The narrative treats the title track and “Guardian Spirit” as further proof that these songs are less compositions than captured organisms, radiant only insofar as they enact collapse. The result is an endorsement of those endurance pieces as the album's vital cores, the best tracks on Birthing because they compel total submission rather than passive listening.

Key Points

• “The Healers” is the best song because its opening lure and subsequent obliteration exemplify the album’s power.
• The album’s core strength is its ritualistic, endurance-based sound that demands transformation rather than passive enjoyment.

Themes

Critic's Take

Hi everyone, Neatthony Feettano here, and I found a handful of the best songs on Birthing that actually land: the closing “(Rope) Away” is the album's most beautiful and immersive moment, and the title track “Birthing” offers a hope-laced, post-rock crescendo. Swans still deliver hulking, massive pieces here, but cuts like “Guardian Spirit” hold up as thrilling proof this sound has gas left in the tank. Some tracks - notably “I Am a Tower” and “The Merge” - flirt with novelty yet often fizzle or feel disjointed, leaving the record feeling like a transitional visit rather than a new summit.

Key Points

• The closing “(Rope) Away” is the album's standout for beauty and immersive crescendo.
• Birthing's strengths are its massive immersive soundscapes and occasional unexpectedly bright, post-rock moments, but it often feels transitional rather than a bold new chapter.

Themes

Critic's Take

Swans' Birthing finds Michael Gira renewing his demiurgic persona while gifting the listener with standout tracks that crystallize the album’s power - chief among them are “The Healers” and “I Am a Tower”. In the reviewer's measured, mythic tone, “The Healers” is depicted as a canyon-top voice and creation-story tableau that drapes melodic threads across a protean sky, making it one of the best tracks on Birthing. Likewise, “I Am a Tower” is praised as idiosyncratically hooky and mantric, the piece where Gira is at his most charismatic - a clear best song on the record. The narrative stresses how the long forms rarely drag and how the record’s symphonic structure and unity make these tracks especially resonant.

Key Points

• The Healers is the best song because of its mythic voice, melodic threads, and vivid creation-story tableau.
• The album’s core strengths are unified composition, precise performances, and focused long-form symphonic structures.

Themes

Critic's Take

In the spacious, liturgical prose of this review, Swans' Birthing finds its best moments in patient, tectonic droning that rewards immersion - chiefly “The Merge”, which the writer singles out as the track most likely to make top ten Swans lists, and the opening drone-wave that sets the album’s tone. The critic frames Birthing as a synthesis rather than a rebirth, praising how songs like “The Merge” and the album’s opening passages layer and tear at the self, producing a cosmic, fever-dream thrill. The prose insists the record is not as violently crushing as The Seer, yet it is vital and beautiful, its slow momentum making those best tracks feel like small, repeated revelations.

Key Points

• The Merge is the standout for its return to Swans’ visceral intensity, making it the album’s best single moment.
• Birthing’s core strength is patient, tectonic droning that layers repetition into a mystical, rewarding experience.

Themes

Critic's Take

Swans' Birthing is presented as a monolithic, crushing farewell and the review repeatedly points to tracks that justify calling out the best songs. The reviewer singles out “I Am a Tower” for its near-anthemic climax and structural mastery, and praises “The Merge” and “(Rope) Away” for their magical crescendos and Norman Westberg's iconic playing. Throughout the piece the writer frames these moments as the core reasons why Birthing is the band’s definitive statement, insisting the album’s epic repetitions, collages and ritual drones make these tracks essential listening. The tone is fervent, reverential and exacting, arguing that these songs crystallise why the record is the most powerful since the reformation.

Key Points

• The Merge’s meandering path to a short, sweet climax makes it the album’s standout moment.
• The album’s core strengths are ritualistic repetition, monumental crescendos and cinematic collages that make this a definitive Swans farewell.

Themes

Critic's Take

Swans' Birthing is a two-hour plunge into ritual and atmosphere, and the review makes clear the best songs are those that embody its meditative ascents - notably “Guardian Spirit” and “The Merge”. Paul Attard writes in his measured, admiring cadence that “Guardian Spirit” carries prophetic pronouncements that lift and unsettle, while “The Merge” trades tenderness for chaos in a way that crystallizes the album's power. The closer “(Rope) Away” is singled out as a rare moment of serenity, which helps explain why these tracks emerge as the album's most affecting moments. Read together, these selections show why fans asking which are the best tracks on Birthing will point to those that balance atmosphere, repetition, and payoff.

Key Points

• The best song, "Guardian Spirit," is the album's prophetic centerpiece that lifts and unsettles with repeated incantation.
• Birthing's core strength is its immersive, ritualistic atmosphere built from repetitive structures, escalating intensity, and synthesis of past Swans sounds.

Themes