Shelleyan Orphan: Classic or Dud?

A Feeling Mission was their masterpiece, I think. They should've been bigger than the Go-Betweens. (Like that's saying much to begin with...)

And, as if to prove your point, they made more than three records, didn't they? Little Dark Mansion, A Feeling Mission, Orbit, My Star Is Shining (with a half-nod to the Embezzling Kisses EP)

They're great - and I'd agree that A Feeling Mission is their high point

Apparently they performed a reunion concert about a month ago. From timeout.com:

The Waterboys + Shelleyan Orphan
Salty seadog Mike Scott and his majestic folk rockers return, expect such frothy hits 'Whole Of The Moon' and 'Fisherman's Blues' at this gig dedicated to the memory of Anita Roddick. Flouncy, pre-Raphaelite-styled duo support in their first live performance for fifteen years.

I couldn't come up with any more details, but it seems like a one-off event. Hopefully a proper reunion is around the corner...

In the mail today -- any hyperfreaks might want to note the next to last paragraph:

---

Shelleyan Orphan

‘We Have Everything We Need’

Shelleyan Orphan Unveil First NEW album in 16 years.

Out October 13th on One Little Indian

So begins the story of Shelleyan Orphan. Their name, taken in homage to the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley is what brought Caroline Crawley and Jem Tayle together at first, forming the band in 1983 in Bournemouth, eventually signing to Rough Trade in 1985.

Combining their love of all musical genres the duo created an unusual blend of pop on their debut Helleborine, utilising a full range of classical instruments, including some obscure ones, like the Strumento da Porca and tamboura. Their influences were diverse as well, as anything from Joy Division to Sparks, Barry White and Delius ebbed and flowed through their ethereal and pulsating sound. Yet above all, Shellyan Orphan is a vocal band. This was illuminated with their next album, 1989s brilliant and critically acclaimed Century Flower, produced by Dave Allen (The Cure, Human League). Following the release, the band toured supporting The Cure throughout Europe and America gaining a wider fan base.

The third album, 1992’s Humroot once again found the duo implementing their love of musical combinations. It found its way to their fanbase and enabled them to continue playing for a few years. After that, Caroline and Jem took a long break from the music industry, coming together occasionally but not as Shelleyan Orphan, until now.

So here is their first new recordings in sixteen years, a collection entitled We Have Everything We Need. They recorded the album at Riverside Studios in Bath with Steve Evans (Siouxsie, Robert Plant and the Proclaimers), while the strings and woodwinds were recorded in Budapest with the Hungarian National Radio Orchestra. The album blends a unique use of strings, woodwind and the unusual (a Hurdy Gurdy and Celeste, for example) with the rhythms of Boris Williams (The Cure) and Charlie Jones (Goldfrapp, Robert Plant).

Moreover, with We Have Everything We Need, Caroline and Jem’s voices come together beautifully once more, but the sound is more calculated, mature and patient. Space is left for the singers to explore, reinvigorate and revisit past melodies, harmonies and fantasies. It’s a jubilant listen, timeless as always, and fitting with the rest of Shelleyan Orphan’s canon.

In addition, a 5 CD/DVD box set is due out in the winter featuring all four albums, a bonus disc of unreleased music and a DVD.

Fall tour dates are also TBC.

man this news really excites me, probably more than it should.

also, this:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/aug/29/popandrock1?gusrc=rss&feed=music

YAY! More Caroline singing!

Now we just need to get Ms Fraser back on the microphone and I can get back to being a mopey goth schoolboy again

They had a little trouble pulling together real stunner full-lengths (though Century Flower really works), but when they were firing, they were pretty incredible, and not nearly as flouncy or mopey as they were made out to be. I'll be pleased as hell to listen through something new.

Thinking it over now, I would actually guess that I wind up listening to at least one Shelleyan Orphan track a month -- usually either "Shatter," "Fishes," or "Timeblind."

I just remember seeing them open for The Cure on the Prayer Tour, and they were so wonderfully out of place and great in the Lakewood Ampitheatre in the daylight hours... i went home after thought and sought out every thing of theirs i could get my hands on.they occupy one of those great spots in my collection that are reserved for "equally grown-up but having fun with it" groups like Frazier Chorus, The Divine Comedy and - to a certain extent - much of David Byrne's solo output.

oh god typing that out makes it look awful and i want to take it all back

makes *me* look awful

You horrible person.

We should concentrate instead on this not-entirely-promising bit from that article:

"Both of us went into the healing arts," explains Crawley, whose chosen field was "Hawaiian healing body work and singing therapy". She travelled to India, the Himalayas and Australia where she stayed with Aborigines as a way of working through unhappy childhood memories. . . . Tayle immersed himself in the study of Chinese medicine and holistic therapies, which he proceeded to mete out to the great and the good. "I massaged Johnny Depp three times," he laughs, "but the most surreal one was Thom Yorke."

I mean, no offense to the "healing arts," but there's something about doing Hawaiian healing body work with Aborigines to work through your childhood issues that has TERRIBLE ALBUM written all over it

yeah, but it could also mean ukeleles, digeridoos and caroline crawley singing over it, which would be :swoon:

Finally am getting around to hearing this album -- it's really quite lovely sounding, perhaps unsurprisingly, and while there are some headscratching lyrics at plenty of points the whole thing sounds marvellous, an extension of what was before while not simply going over the old ground. Crawley's voice sounds a bit cooler, Tayle's guitar playing and orchestral arrangements complement hear and each other excellently. It's very clearly THEM, for lack of a better word.

Also, it's just damned great to hear Boris Williams drumming on anything again; there's something so perfect he adds to almost every song beyond simply timekeeping.

Ah man. Caroline Crawley has passed:

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10207401674545318&id=1390648667

https://twitter.com/chriswhite65/status/783299951409397760

It is with deep sadness that my dearest oldest mate in life & music passed away today after a long illness

Good grief, what horrible news

Man 2016 please just STOP IT.

oh fuck, this is so sad. RIP.

A fine tribute

http://pitchfork.com/thepitch/1314-the-world-should-remember-caroline-crawleys-voice/

http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/shelleyan-orphan
box set coming out at end of the month

Bought this on a whim given the This Mortal Coil and Pentangle connections, sound-unheard. And at least with 'Helleborine' I think I like it a lot. It walks a fine line, that most things trying to tread would fall badly. And they sound weirdly 2000s-2010s to me, which I normally wouldn't care for. . . But I think the weird 'Astral Weeks' + 'Innocence Mission' thing they're doing really works, mostly because the arrangements are so strong. This is a band I could see emo teenagers from any period of indie rockness between the late 90s and today finding and becoming obsessed with. But it's still working for me for some reason. The box set doesn't seem to be setting the world on fire, anyway, but I could totally see some enterprising young hip group I've never heard of covering some of these tracks to acclaim:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvwqLEffwA4

Got the box set months ago, never having heard them at all but knowing they were supposed to be my kind of band. But god damn, I listened to Helleborine and it far exceeded my expectations, my socks were knocked off, crashed through the walls and landed in another continent. More than just another good 4AD-ish band, this is genuinely amazing stuff! Only one thread with 33 posts, what is wrong with people?
Final track mesmerized me like nothing I've heard in a long time.

Track order of Helleborine is changed but this isn't even noted on any of the tracklistings in the box. Sleeve notes say the album was sanitized by people above the band and presumably this track order is the un-sanitized version?

Alan Lee did cover art, so that's why they look like ghosts from Lord Of The Rings.

This fucking band!

Century Flower is pretty solid, some really nice songs in there, but can only be a letdown after the sheer brilliance of Helleborine. "Timeblind" is spectacular though.

I have a cassette of Century Flower that I played maybe twice, now sitting in my basement with boxes of tapes. But I'm listening to Helleborine for the first time today, and it's dark and rainy, so it fits that mood, but it also has this "sun dappled meadow" kind of vibe that is really lovely.