Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A longlasting loveaffair, June 5, 2008
There are few records that keep me interested year after year. It's always quite difficult to find out which it will be or how they manage to. I guess it is all about leaving mysteries. Something you don't quite understand, and still don't after 100s of listenings. "Brilliant trees" is one of these fantastic albums and I've felt this since I first heard it in 1986. I always seem to come back to it, no matter where I'm taken. It's a safe home of extreme beauty and musicmanship. A timeless masterpiece that does not show which decade it was made in.
If I should point my finger at something it would have to be the inclusion of "Pulling punches", a great funky track. Not that it isn't good, it just somehow doesn't fit the sensible nature of the rest. But it's easily forgotten and forgiven in the light of the titletrack, my favourite track of all time, I guess. There's always a nostalgic tear on its way when listening to it. Thank you, David. Hope you can top this one day.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A new beginning., August 9, 2007
After Japan had finally recorded an album that realized their talents (1982's "Tin Drum", far and away their best work), they did what so often happens to bands on top of the world (in a fashion). They broke up. Bassist Mick Karn released a quirky, Middle Eastern solo record and began recording with former Bauhaus vocalist Peter Murphy. Shortly thereafter, vocalist and principle songwriter David Sylvian returned with his debut, 1984's "Brilliant Trees".
Often revered by people who were listening back then (I was six, so I was not), "Brilliant Trees" is a brave and exciting album. Like his work with his previous band, Sylvian is prepared to turn his back on his previous accomplishments-- gone are the pseudo-Eastern trappings of "Tin Drum", replaced with a jazz sensibility. Gone is the slithering bass and wailing sax of Mick Karn, instead an atmospheric swirl, or a funky backdrop (depending on the song), carefully constructed by Sylvian and collaborator Holger Czukay, and brass leads (provided ably by Czukay, Kenny Wheeler, Jon Hassell or Mark Isham) dominate the record. And yet, it feels like the followup to "Tin Drum" in it's own way-- certainly Sylvian's voice, while it has gained a depth to it, maintains its distinctive smokey baritone that he was developing, and the presence of Japan drummer Steve Jansen, whose subtle and tasteful playing so delicately worked on "Tin Drum", works here as well. And with appearances by Japan keyboardist Richard Barbieri, frequent collaborator Ryuichi Sakamoto, and producer Steve Nye, there's a sense of continuity.
"Brilliant Trees", as one suspects, excels when Sylvian reaches beyond the sound of Japan-- in fact, Sylvian's penchant for jazz-tinged ballads, which would come to bear so strongly on "Secrets of the Beehive", is pretty apparent here-- no more obvious is it than "Nostalgia". The standout cut on the album-- it features a confident vocal, a great, subtle arrangement with a blazing flugelhorn solo courtesy of Kenny Wheeler, and some superb hand drumming from Jansen. But more often than not, there's a feeling of a lack of confidence in the material-- "Weathered Wall" is a beautiful ballad, but Sylvian's voice sounds a bit tentative and unsure. Still, while this sort of tentativeness is present in part throughout the record, it lends a nice edginess to some of the pieces such that they excel from it ("The Ink in the Well"). And certainly, no lack of certainty is present on the closing title track, and even if it was, there's little that could stop that piece from being as much of a triumph as it is. The only track that really doesn't do it for me is moody ballad "Backwaters", which just feels totally lifeless to me.
This remaster finally gives the album the sonic update it deserves-- put simply, it sounds like it was recorded yesterday with the original cover artwork intact.
Invariably though, the album suffers from being the followup to "Tin Drum", regardless of how it should stand on its own, and it also suffers, as a point in history, from being the weakest of Sylvian's three vocal albums of the '80s, and both of these things effected my rating of it. Having stated that, it's probably the strongest three star album in my collection. Recommended.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant, yes, January 19, 2009
I have to agree with Durand. David Sylvian created a gorgeous ghost of an album with 'Brilliant Trees'. Check out 'Red Guitar' or 'Ink in the Well'. The jazz influences are kept in check, adding texture, not running loose. Jon Hassel's disembodied horn quivers and floats through the title track and 'Weathered Wall' while Sylvian's wounded croon paints a testimony.
There are no stinkers on this album. Japan pinnacled with 'Oil on Canvas' but David Sylvian made a leap forward with this one.
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by David Sylvian 
