Love of Life (album)
Love of Life is the eighth studio album by American experimental rock band Swans. It was released in February 1992 on Young God Records.
Background
Like its predecessor, White Light from the Mouth of Infinity, Love of Life was out of print for a long time and had not been reissued until December 2015. Six of the eleven songs appear on the Various Failures compilation, and a further four appear on the Forever Burned compilation. These two compilations therefore contain all the material on this release, except the Jarboe composition "She Cries ", as well as tracks 1 and 9. Love of Life is the only Swans album to date to not feature guitarist Norman Westberg in any capacity.The cover art is a painting by Deryk Thomas. All of the untitled segues, listed as both "" and "", are credited to the band Beautiful People LTD, which is a one-off collaboration between Jarboe and then-Swans bass player Lary 7.
Critical reception
Trouser Press wrote, "Not as stunning in its passion as the band's best work, Love of Life is still an often beautiful, haunting record." AllMusic wrote, "Love of Life unsurprisingly proves to be yet another Swans masterpiece."Track listing
;2015 Bonus CDPersonnel
- Michael Gira – vocals, guitar, acoustic guitar, samples, production, sleeve artwork concept and design
- Jarboe – vocals, keyboards, backing vocals, mellotron
- Clinton Steele – guitar, acoustic guitar
- Algis Kizys – bass guitar
- Vincent Signorelli – drums
- Jenny Wade – bass
- Ted Parsons – drums
- Troy Gregory – bass guitar
- Larry Seven – bass guitar, guitar
- Adam Jankowski – narration on "Identity"
- Martin Bisi – engineering, additional programming
- Howie Weinberg – mastering
- Mark Richardson – additional recording
- Deryk Thomas – front cover illustration
- Larry Lame – sleeve photography
- Patricia Mooney – sleeve artwork and layout