Swans Are Dead is a double

Double album

A double album is an audio album which spans two units of the primary medium in which it is sold, typically records and compact discs....

 live album

Live album

A live album is a recording consisting of material recorded during stage performances using remote recording techniques, commonly contrasted with a studio album...

 by Swans

Swans (band)

Swans are an influential American post-punk band initially active from 1982 to 1997, led by singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Michael Gira. The band was one of the few groups to emerge from the early 1980s New York No Wave scene and stay intact into the next decade. Formed by Gira in...

. It was released in 1998 and was recorded in 1995 and 1997 on the band's final tours.

The setlists of this era in the Swans live show were probably the most varied in terms of chronology. Although many of the songs performed were culled from Soundtracks for the Blind

Soundtracks for the Blind

Soundtracks for the Blind is the eleventh studio album by Swans, and the final for fourteen years, until 2010's My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky. It was released as a double-CD in 1996...

, the band also resurrected songs from much earlier albums, including a reworking of "I Crawled" from Young God.

Recording dates

Disc one (Black) was recorded in Amsterdam, New York City, Trondheim, Prague, Brussels and Atlanta on the band's final tour in 1997. Two other songs were performed on this tour, "The Man With the Silver Tongue", which appeared in a revised form on Angels of Light's 1999 debut LP New Mother

New Mother

New Mother is the debut studio album by Angels of Light. It was released in 1999. The album contains versions of some songs that were performed live during Swans final tour, including "The Man With the Silver Tongue" and "Not Alone"....

; and "My Birth", which remained unreleased until it appeared on Swans's 2010 album My Father Will Guide Me up a Rope to the Sky

My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky

My Father Will Guide Me up a Rope to the Sky is a studio album by Swans released on September 23, 2010; it is their first studio recording in 14 years...

. However, neither tracks were included on the album. Other songs were also sporadically performed, such as "The Sound" (at least twice on the American leg of the tour).

The liner notes claim that disc two (white) was recorded in Norway on the band's 1995 tour, but this performance is actually the concert at Paradiso, Amsterdam, August 29, 1995. The songs "In", "Alcohol the Seed", and "Animus", that had been played during the tour and also for the Amsterdam concert, did not appear on Swans Are Dead (the concert has been recorded by the radio station VPRO, Animus is also cut on that recording.)

Track listing

Disc one (Black)

1. "Feel Happiness" – 16:57 [Amsterdam, March 13, 1997]
2. "Low Life Form" – 4:54 [Amsterdam, March 13, 1997]
3. "Not Alone" – 13:12 [Amsterdam, March 13, 1997]
4. "Blood on Yr Hands" – 2:59
5. "Hypogirl" – 3:22
6. "I Crawled" – 10:05
7. "I Am the Sun" – 5:26
8. "Blood Promise" – 15:23

Disc two (White)

1. "Final Sac" – 8:43
2. "The Sound" – 12:51
3. "I See Them All Lined Up" – 6:46
4. "Lavender" – 8:02
5. "YR PRP" – 8:51
6. "Yum Yab" – 4:36
7. "Helpless Child" – 17:44
8. "M/F" – 3:25