Can you believe it's been over a year since our last David Sylvian post? My, how time flies. Back in 2012, we looked at his 1986 album, Gone to Earth, so it seems only fitting to move forward in time by another year and see how KCMU reacted to its followup, 1987's Secrets of the Beehive, his last strictly solo album until 1999's Dead Bees on a Cake (which I guess you'll be reading about here in a dozen years or so?). This effort seems to be somewhat less divisive than the previous one, although there there is still some debate about his vocal style - or rather, the same person who complained on the previous album shows up to air the same complaints here.
When last we heard from Sylvian, he had canceled a tour due to ill health. He has yet to book a tour since then, in the interest of making sure he's completely up to it before committing the time and money (and asking ticket buyers to commit their money), which seems like a wise way to go about things. Continued best wishes for good health to Mr. Sylvian!
"Very quiet music. Which is not too different from the last album. Soft beautiful music." "What little I've heard I really like. Great stuff." "The new lead singer for King Crimson. Serious! [According to the internet, Sylvian was invited to sing with King Crimson in the early '90s, but never did. He did collaborate with Robert Fripp during that period, however.] (Good stuff! Heck, maybe even great!)" "I really like some of the music here + I'm glad I'm hearing less of his voice. Makes me think of Simon LeBon with a voice affectation." "Tim: I luv ya but y'got tin ears." "Better than having Simon LeBon's voice. I'll take his tour bus tho'." "Looks like the guys at Virgin took layout lessons from 23 Envelope." "Yo Phil- 23 Envelope did design this, so, I'm sure it was experience." "What a beautiful, mellow and melodic lyrical record this is! Very impressive." |
I covered a Robyn Hitchcock in this space a while back, but this is the first time we've looked at an album from The Soft Boys, the band that first brought him to the attention of college radio nerds across the globe. The band was rather short-lived, breaking up shortly after the relatively unsucce…
One thing I've noticed over the years I've been writing these blog posts is that I should really know more about the English city of Birmingham and its music. While it might not have the name recognition of Manchester, Liverpool, and London to those of us outside of the UK, Birmingham has produced …
