Spleen and Ideal

Spleen and Ideal is the second studio album by Australian band Dead Can Dance. It was released on 25 November 1985 by 4AD. The album features a transition between the band's post-punk and gothic rock-influenced debut album towards a neoclassical dark wave style.

For the poetry by Charles Baudelaire, see Les Fleurs du mal.

Spleen and Ideal
Studio album by
Dead Can Dance
Released25 November 1985
RecordedSeptember–November 1985
StudioWoodbine (Warwickshire, England)
Length38:11
Label4AD
Producer
  • Dead Can Dance
  • John A. Rivers
Dead Can Dance chronology
Garden of the Arcane Delights
(1984)		 Spleen and Ideal
(1985)		 Within the Realm of a Dying Sun
(1987)

Background

The band's official website stated that the album title was taken "from 19th Century symbolist ideals". The title is directly taken from "Spleen et Idéal", a collection of poems by French poet Charles Baudelaire which form a section of his magnum opus Les Fleurs du mal.

Discussing the album's musical style, AllMusic commented that with Spleen and Ideal, Dead Can Dance "fully took the plunge into the heady mix of musical traditions that would come to define its sound and style for the remainder of its career. The straightforward goth affectations are exchanged for a sonic palette and range of imagination".[1]

The cover image shows the partial demolition of Grain Elevator No. 2 at Salford Quays, part of Manchester and Salford Docks.[2]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Dead Can Dance.

No.TitleLength
1."De Profundis (Out of the Depths of Sorrow)"4:00
2."Ascension"3:05
3."Circumradiant Dawn"3:17
4."The Cardinal Sin"5:29
5."Mesmerism"3:53
6."Enigma of the Absolute"4:13
7."Advent"5:19
8."Avatar"4:35
9."Indoctrination (A Design for Living)"4:16

Critical reception
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]

In a retrospective review, AllMusic praised the album, calling it "amazing [...] 'haunting' and 'atmospheric' barely [scratch] even the initial surface of the album's power".[1]

Release history
Country Date
UK 25 November 1985
United States 8 March 1994

Chart history
Chart Position
UK Indie Chart 2

Personnel
  • Lisa Gerrard – vocals, all other instruments, production
  • Brendan Perry – vocals, all other instruments, production, sleeve art direction
  • Gus Ferguson – cello
  • Martin McCarrick – cello
  • James Pinker – timpani
  • Tony Ayres – timpani
  • Richard Avison – trombone
  • Simon Hogg – trombone
  • Carolyn Costin – violin
  • Andrew Hutton – soprano vocals on track 1
Technical
  • John A. Rivers – production, engineering
  • Jonathan Dee – engineering
  • Colin Gray – sleeve photography

References
  1. Raggett, Ned. "Spleen and Ideal – Dead Can Dance". Allmusic. Retrieved 19 February 2013.
  2. Allen, Chris. "No. 2 Grain Elevator - I refuse to die". Geograph. Retrieved 30 September 2020.
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