Spleen and Ideal

Dead Can Dance

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 22, 1994)
• Original Release Date: 1985
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: 4ad / Wea
• ASIN: B000002MPO
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #133,919 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Track Listings

1. De Profundis (Out of the Depths of Sorrow)

2. Ascension

3. Circumradiant Dawn

4. Cardinal Sin

5. Mesmerism

6. Enigma of the Absolute

7. Advent

8. Avatar

9. Indoctrination (A Design for Living)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Limited 2009 digitally remastered 180gm vinyl LP pressing. The primarily experimental structure of the group's second album, released in 1985, dispelled any notion that the band deserved the post-Gothic label slapped on them by the English music press. --This text refers to the Vinyl edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 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)

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

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

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.