Customer Reviews

Heaven Is Waiting

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THE DANSE SOCIETY are without doubt one of the undiscovered gems of the 80's. This album has very gothic leanings with its jangly guitar and minor key arrangements. Perhaps the best thing about it is Lyndon Scarfe's distinctive keyboard sound which shines here more than on their earlier releases. The production is also a quantum leap forward from their independant releases which contributes even more to the density and menace of the songs.

If you like THE SISTERS OF MERCY or early CLAN OF XYMOX you will find plenty in this CD to get your juices flowing. Its probably more like "Floodland" than anything but THE DANSE SOCIETY pre-date SISTERS so its no rip-off, unlike so much mid to late 80's Goth. Most of the bonus tracks are culled from "B" sides and from the limited edition, gate-fold "double" single for "2000 Light Years From Home", which makes it great for collectors. For my money this is the best Goth album I own and it still sounds great today.

I saw Danse Society in New York back in the mid 80s and became an immediate fan. Sadly, they didn't stay together long. If one looks at the musical time line of English bands, it is easy to see/hear that Danse Society was a tremendous influence on the artists emerging later in that decade.

If you like your dance music dark and moody, this is for you.

Heaven is Waiting was the first lp the Danse Society released through Arista, and I believe it was the last full length album they released through Arista. It isn't that this is a bad album, it just was poorly promoted by Arista at the time, and the Sisters began to dominate the genre at the time this album was released. But with that being said, this is a top notch album by a band that became very influential within the gothic rock genre. Songs like the title track, and 'The Night' have been heavily emulated by gothic rock bands from the late 80's and by goth bands all throughout the 90's. The album has the traditional jangly guitars that makes gothic rock shine, with sinister vocals at times and a lovely overall atmosphere. What makes the album really stand out is that unlike the goth/post punk bands that were around at the same time, DS layered their songs with dance rock like elements, the others kept things more minimalistic.

The version listed on Amazon is the remastered version, it contains an extra song or two. The remastering of the album was done very well, not as top notch as the Cure remasters, but it's up there.

The album is highly recommended if you're into early Clan of Xymox, Floodland by The Sisters of Mercy, or 90's goth bands like early Rosetta Stone and London After Midnight.

If you like darker more experimental tracks from the album Seduction such as "Continet" or "these frayed frayed edges" or, are one of the few like me that like the gloomy hazy cold swirvy songs of the album Looking Through like "Sunset Gun" then this album is definitely not for you. It doesn't even come close to Goth for it isn't even that much along the lines of 80's alternative. It is a techno like fun filled new wavey poppy dance album. With Seduction they were creative and dark and with their last album Looking Through they were more gloomy and sad with subtle hints of a mainstream feel but this album in between those is like a poppy comedy relief. For all the mainstream Goth fans this is like if Seventh Dream of Teenage Heaven from the band Love and Rockets was in between In the Flat Field and Mask from Bauhaus. After making Seduction the band were signed to the big mainstream label Artisa which forced the band to get poppy in order to achieve record sales. The band, not happy with this awfull record, neither am I, made the album Looking Through afterwards as a record to show off to record companies to get a new contract but, when the band split up leaving only singer Steve Rawling by himself, He changed the name of the band to The Danse Society International and not only toured under that name but released the album looking through under that band name. This album isn't horrible it's just not a Danse Society like record and trust me I own allmost everything they have ever made. It's just too poppy for me and leans torward techno, a genre im not that fond of. even with covering The Rolling Stones song "2000 lightyears from home" a very experimental dark and underrated track from The Rolling Stones, Danse Society even managed to make that poppy but it wasn't their fault it was Artisas most likely. If you like techno, dancy, poppy, music and like to go to Goth clubs and party and pretend you like listening to dark music and you life is awfull even tho your rich mommy and daddy buy everything for you including albums like this and they make sure your night light allways has a fresh bulb YOUD LOVE THIS ALBUM. If not then I personally wouldn't recommend it.One thing positive I will say is the singers voice was more developed on this release than it was on Seduction. And just so your know the song "Somewhere" aint the original it's a butchured remake.