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.

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".

Track listing

Critical reception

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

Release history

CountryDate
UK25 November 1985
United States8 March 1994

Chart history

Personnel

; Technical