Children of God (Swans album)

Last updated

Children of God
Childrenofgod.jpg
Studio album by
Swans
ReleasedOctober 19, 1987 [1]
RecordedFebruary–March 1987
Studio Sawmills Studios, Golant, England
Genre
Length71:13
Label Caroline
Producer Rico Conning, Michael Gira
Swans chronology
Public Castration Is a Good Idea
(1986)		Children of God
(1987)		 Love Will Tear Us Apart (EP)
(1988)
Singles from Children of God
  1. "New Mind"
    Released: Summer 1987
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svg [6]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [7]
Ondarock 9.0/10 [8]
Pitchfork 7.0/10 (2003) [9]
9.4/10(2003) [10]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide Star full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [11]
Spin Alternative Record Guide 7/10 [12]

Children of God is the fifth studio album by American experimental rock band Swans. It was released on October 19, 1987, [1] through record label Caroline and on K.422 in the United Kingdom.

Contents

Production

The album was recorded over the course of six weeks in February–March 1987 at Sawmills Studios in Cornwall, England. It represented a dramatic, experimental change in sound from earlier Swans releases, moving away from the brutality of previous work to explore acoustic instruments and more conventional song structures.

By 1986/7 Swans had run its course with the physical assault of sound that we had employed previously for the most part. I wanted to move on to other things and didn’t want to get stuck in some style, which in our case had the potential of becoming cartoonish if we’d continued in that direction. So, I pushed the music into unfamiliar territory. [13]

—  Michael Gira

Release history

Children of God was reissued along with the World of Skin compilation (without the cover versions) as the 1997 Children of God/World of Skin CD. On the rerelease, the original album version of "Our Love Lies" was replaced with the version included on the Love Will Tear Us Apart EP. The re-release also added "Damn You to Hell" and "I'll Swallow You" (under one title as "I'll Swallow You") from the New Mind single. The tracks "Sex, God, Sex", "Beautiful Child" and "Children of God" were shortened by several seconds with earlier fadeouts, and "Trust Me" fades directly into the brief interlude at the end.

A remaster of the album, along with the live album Feel Good Now , was released on November 13, 2020. [14]

Reception

Children of God is widely considered one of the band's strongest and most popular recordings and the most acclaimed album of their early period. In 2003, Brandon Stousey from Pitchfork wrote that the album is "one of the band's strongest releases" and "established Gira as an Old Testament tyrant obsessed with the nature of love, human frailty, and the midnight beauty of black orchids". [15] Writing for AllMusic, Ned Raggett wrote that "with flute, oboe, and strings adding further texturing to the often quite a lovely songs created by the band, Children remains perhaps the key album of Swans' career -- the clear signpost towards their ever-more ambitious albums in the future". [16]

Track listing

Original release [17]
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."New Mind" Algis Kizys, Michael Gira, Norman Westberg, Ted Parsons 5:13
2."In My Garden"Kizys, Jarboe, Gira5:34
3."Our Love Lies"Kizys, Gira, Westberg5:50
4."Sex, God, Sex"Gira, Westberg6:49
5."Blood and Honey"Jarboe, Gira4:46
6."Like a Drug (Sha La La La)"Kizys, Gira, Westberg, Parsons5:36
7."You're Not Real, Girl"Gira4:21
8."Beautiful Child"Kizys, Gira, Westberg, Parsons5:16
9."Blackmail"Jarboe, Gira3:34
10."Trust Me"Jarboe, Gira, Westberg5:23
11."Real Love"Kizys, Gira, Westberg6:23
12."Blind Love"Gira, Westberg7:46
13."Children of God"Jarboe, Gira4:34
Total length:71:11

Some pressings of the CD divide "Trust Me" into two tracks: The actual song (4:28), and an unlisted/untitled interlude consisting of a field recording of a rowboat on the water, with birds in the background (0:57).

1997 re-release Children of God/World of Skin [18]
Disc 1: Children of God
No.TitleLength
1."New Mind"5:12
2."In My Garden"5:35
3."Our Love Lies" (Love Will Tear Us Apart EP version)4:30
4."Sex, God, Sex" (edit)6:36
5."Blood and Honey"4:47
6."Like a Drug (Sha La La La)"5:34
7."You're Not Real, Girl"4:17
8."Beautiful Child" (edit)4:52
9."Blackmail"3:32
10."Trust Me" (fades into shortened rowboat recording)4:58
11."Real Love"6:20
12."Blind Love"7:44
13."Children of God" (edit)4:22
14."I'll Swallow You" (composed of "Damn You to Hell" and "I'll Swallow You" from the "New Mind" single)4:14
Total length:72:39
Disc 2: World of Skin
No.TitleLength
1."1,000 Years" (edit, from Blood, Women, Roses )4:02
2."Everything at Once" (from Shame, Humility, Revenge )4:22
3."Breathing Water" (from Shame, Humility, Revenge)4:18
4."Blood on Your Hands" (from Blood, Women, Roses)3:53
5."Nothing Without You" (from Shame, Humility, Revenge)5:43
6."We'll Fall Apart" (from Blood, Women, Roses)4:43
7."My Own Hands" (from Blood, Women, Roses)4:38
8."Turn to Stone" (from Shame, Humility, Revenge as "Turned to Stone")5:21
9."Cold Bed" (from Shame, Humility, Revenge)2:25
10."24 Hours" (from Shame, Humility, Revenge)4:13
11."Red Rose" (from Blood, Women, Roses)4:29
12."One Small Sacrifice" (from Shame, Humility, Revenge)6:43
13."Still a Child" (from Blood, Women, Roses)5:22
14."The Center of Your Heart" (from Shame, Humility, Revenge)4:48
Total length:65:00

Personnel

Charts

ChartPeak
position
UK Indie Chart [19] 3

References

  1. 1 2 "Children of God Advertisement" . Retrieved April 21, 2017.
  2. ↑ Morse, Erik (2009). Spacemen 3 And The Birth Of Spiritualized. Omnibus Press. ISBN   978-0857121042.
  3. ↑ Terich, Jeff (September 26, 2013). "Beginner's Guide: Swans". Treblezine. Retrieved June 24, 2015.
  4. ↑ Pattison, Louis. "Swans - My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky". BBC . Retrieved June 24, 2015.
  5. ↑ Terich, Jeff (May 27, 2015). "Swans : Filth (Deluxe Edition)". Treble. Retrieved May 30, 2020.
  6. ↑ Raggett, Ned. "Children of God – Swans". AllMusic . Retrieved March 4, 2013.
  7. ↑ Larkin, Colin (2011). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th concise ed.). Omnibus Press. ISBN   978-0-85712-595-8.
  8. ↑ Fabretti, Claudio. "Swans – Liturgie dell'apocalisse". Ondarock (in Italian). Retrieved August 19, 2025.
  9. ↑ Stosuy, Brandon (July 17, 2003). "Swans: Children of God Album Review". Pitchfork . Retrieved August 6, 2023.
  10. ↑ "Swans: Children of God: Pitchfork Review". Archived from the original on June 3, 2004. Retrieved August 6, 2023.
  11. ↑ Evans, Paul; Brackett, Nathan (1992). "Swans". In DeCurtis, Anthony; Henke, James; George-Warren, Holly (eds.). The Rolling Stone Album Guide (3rd ed.). Random House. ISBN   0679737294.
  12. ↑ Weisband, Eric; Marks, Craig, eds. (1995). "Syd Barrett". Spin Alternative Record Guide (1st ed.). New York: Vintage Books. ISBN   0-679-75574-8.
  13. ↑ "Children of God (2020 Remaster), by SWANS". SWANS. Retrieved May 1, 2021.
  14. ↑ "Children of God / Feel Good Now (Remastered 2020)". Young God Records . Retrieved September 15, 2020.
  15. ↑ Stosuy, Brandon. "Swans: Children of God". Pitchfork. Retrieved July 14, 2025.
  16. ↑ Children of God - Swans | Album | AllMusic , retrieved July 14, 2025
  17. ↑ "Swans - Children Of God". Discogs (in German). Retrieved September 9, 2020.
  18. ↑ "Children of God / World of Skin". Spotify . Retrieved September 9, 2020.
  19. ↑ Lazell, Barry (1997). Indie Hits 1980-1989. Cherry Red Books. Archived from the original on June 6, 2011. Retrieved September 5, 2014.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.