SPLEEN AND IDEAL

Spleen and Ideal is the second studio album from Dead Can Dance. Spleen and Ideal is the first Dead Can Dance album where we get to hear the sound that they would play for the rest of their career with a few changes along the way. The seft-titled debut album is very much in goth rock/ new wave territory while Spleen and Ideal in large has moved away from that style.

The music has taken a turn towards a more ethnic approach since the goth rock debut. Atmospheric landscapes and ambient sounds are combined with Lisa Gerrard´s virtuosic vocals which most of the time is middle eastern tinged and very impressive. Brendan Perry´s vocals are more in the goth rock tradition and a couple of the songs are also in this style even though both Cardinal Sin and Advent are much more accomplished than the songs on the debut. My favorites here are Mesmerism, Advent and especially the Brendan Perry sung Enigma of the Absolute which points towards the sound that Dead Can Dance would have on albums like Serpent´s Egg and Aion.

The musicianship is excellent and it´s a real treat to listen to both Lisa Gerrad´s and Brendan Perry´s vocal contributions. There are lots of guest musicians on instruments like Violin, trombone, tympani and cello and those instruments add an organic feel to the songs which would become a trademark in Dead Can Dance sound.

The production is good but not as impressive as the productions on later releases. For 1985 this is a good production though.

Spleen and Ideal is not my favorite Dead Can Dance album ( I even prefer the debut over this one). It´s probably my least favoured come to think of it, but as their general standard is so high it´s still a good album and well deserving 3 stars.