All Lined Up

All Lined Up

Swans

All Lined Up is the ninth track on Swan’s album Soundtracks for the Blind. The song first appeared as I See Them All Lined Up on Michael Gira’s Drainland. The lyrics describe a gruesome scene taking place. There seems to be ritualistic killings going on, and the narrator seems to be the leader. Seeing all this death and destruction makes him feel stronger. He seems to smile and jeer at all the victims as they die horrifying deaths.

The most interesting line is the closing lyric – “I finally got back what was always rightfully mine”. On a song that is so blatant and straight-forward, this ambiguous line stands out. He could be talking about the fact that he thinks he owns the souls of all these people because they were worshipping him. This could also hint toward the fact that all of these killings are being done for an act of revenge.

Another interpretation of this could be anti-religion. Gira has stated that he is not a fan of organized religion, so this could be a strong criticism of sacrificial rituals and such.

But then, this opens up what this song could possibly mean in the context of the album. As we know from the song Blind, Gira describes himself being blind becuase he can’t see the struggles other people are going through. So, with that in mind, Soundtracks for the Blind is an album being played to show the “blind” the struggles many others go through. This makes sense, because not only do many of the song themes match up, but on the album closer, Surrogate Drone, the song ends with a sound reminiscent of a VHS or tape recorder breaking or being turned off.

This song is about describing to the “blind” the horrors that go on around the world having to do with religious cults, ritualistic sacrifices and so on.