Spleen and Ideal [IMPORT]

Dead Can Dance

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 7, 2006)
• Original Release Date: 1985
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• ASIN: B00002428M
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #211,644 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Out of print in the U.S.! Import pressing of this classic 1985 sophomore album from one of the 4AD label's most popular and influential bands. At the core of Dead Can Dance is guitarist Brendan Perry and vocalist Lisa Gerard, who created a body of work that remains invigorating and uniquely their own. Nine tracks. 4AD.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A duo of unparalleled talent makes their key breakthrough, February 23, 2001

By	Christopher Culver - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Spleen and Ideal (Audio CD)

Although they released their self-titled debut album in 1984, it was 1986's SPLEEN AND IDEAL which brought Dead Can Dance, the duo of Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry, into their distinctive style. The debut consisted of guitar-heavy 80s-mood pieces, but in SPLEEN AND IDEAL Lisa and Brendan make their first experiment in classical structures and unique songs.

The album opens with three songs centered around Lisa's voice over orchestral instruments, "De Profundis," "Ascension," and "Circumradiant Dawn." Then, Brendan Perry provides the first of his deeply philosophical songs in "The Cardinal Sin." The fifth track, "Mesmerism," features the last English lyrics Lisa ever sang with Dead Can Dance with her yangqin (Chinese hammered dulcimer) accompaniment over a drum machine. "Enigma of the Absolute" is perhaps Perry's most lyrically perfect song. "Advent" is another Perry track, that features the most rock-like structure on the album. "Avatar" is Lisa's final contribution to the album, an Oriental trip through drums and yangqin that climaxes with a frenzy of Lisa's glossolalia. Finally, the album closes with "Indoctrination," which sums up well Perry's world-view during the early part of Dead Can Dance's career.

SPLEEN AND IDEAL is another one of the few albums that I own which is so consistent that I cannot name a bad track. It is one of Dead Can Dance's finest efforts, and definitely should be one of the first albums you pick up by this superbly talented duo.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dark dreams of disquiet and wonder, June 20, 2005

By	Chet Fakir (DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Spleen and Ideal (Audio CD)

Spleen and Ideal was the first DCD album I purchased, on cassette no less. And though I have have most of their recorded output this one, perhaps for sentimental purposes, perhaps not, is still my favorite. The spareness of the instrumentation, the wonderful world weary vocals of Brendan Perry and the strange almost Bulgarian womens choir like vocals of Lisa Gerard combine to make one of the most beautiful and atmospheric albums of the '80s. Exotic in all the right ways, it does what music should do: it takes me out of myself and presents new possibilities I never would have thought of on my own. Beautiful, elegiac and wonderous.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mysterious and majestic, February 10, 2001

By	Ken (Youngsville, LA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Spleen and Ideal (Audio CD)

Their debut (which I still love just as much as their others) might have been the record where DCD were given the "gothic" tag with its minimal hunger and its mysterious tribal tendencies, but "Spleen & Ideal" was where DCD became orchestrated, lush... majestic. The word "ethereal" has been around for ages, but it seems custom-fit to describe the Dead Can Dance sound, especially beginning with what they were accomplishing from this LP onward. Mysterious and subtle keyboard-laden passages, laced with Lisa Gerrard's stream-of-consciousness vocals, are juxtaposed with Brendan Perry's confidant, unwavering, and powerful voice on the other, typically orchestrated and brass-and-string driven tracks. I think this was the LP that showed Dead Can Dance's transformation from the primitive to the worldly and sophisticated - a metamorphosis they recreated with every release afterwards.