David Sylvian-Secrets Of The Beehive

We've only polled this and "Brilliant Trees". There's a rather short DBOAC thread and that's it, so poll away!

Happy birthday!

is this his best album?

Maybe. I've quite come around to Gone to Earth, night music I admire.

I like Gone to Earth best because of the way the two albums play off of each other. The songs are like a journey taking you to the place where the instrumentals can envelop you.

"Orpheus" is the centrepiece of this album, but I think I'd choose the Scott Walker tribute of "Waterfront". I felt that Sylvian's voice got a little rougher and deeper on this record, which is strange since it was only a year later and he hadn't toured between the two records.

I don’t know this album but Gone to Earth is tremendous, dark velvet maroon, gorgeous sound world

haha, I love Gone to Earth but like to listen to it on sunny autumn days!

Ideal Sunday morning music.

the only bad thing i have to say about this album is that it's a tragedy he didn't manage to finish "ride" at the time

From his wiki, never heard this one before:

"I'm not currently thinking about a future in the arts. To quote Sarah Kendzior from her book The View From Flyover Country, "In an article for Slate, Jessica Olien debunks the myth that originality and inventiveness are valued in U.S. society: 'This is the thing about creativity that is rarely acknowledged: Most people don't actually like it.'"[78]"

Though the version of "Ride" on Everything and Nothing isn't exactly the same mix that would have been on this record (the rhythm tracks sound especially different to what he would have done in 1987), I tried coming up with a LP sequence that would integrate it:

Let the Happiness In
Mother and Child
September
Ride
The Devil's Own

The Boy With the Gun
When Poets Dreamed of Angels
Maria
Waterfront
Orpheus

It's so long and such an obvious centrepiece to the record that it's hard to include it without throwing one of the sides off-kilter, hence the radical track shuffling.

It seems that Sylvian gets more satisfaction from visual art and occasional installation-type work these days than even working the margins of popular music where he last wound up.

Even if he was unhappy with the recording at that stage, it's strange that he didn't perform "Ride" on his subsequent tour. I would have preferred to hear it over some of the instrumental indulgences he and the band did.

Though the version of "Ride" on _Everything and Nothing_ isn't exactly the same mix that would have been on this record (the rhythm tracks sound especially different to what he would have done in 1987)

Not really the right thread but surprised to see a Forbidden Colours T-shirt in 2023.

https://shop.davidsylvian.com/products/forbidden-colours-t-shirt

yeah he's rolling out a bunch of merch which is...weird