Spleen and Ideal

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

Spleen and Ideal
Studio album by Dead Can Dance
Released	December 1985
Recorded	September - November 1985
Genre	World music, neoclassical, ethereal, post-punk, gothic rock
Length	38:11
Label	4AD 4AD/Warner Bros. Records (U.S.) 45547
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)

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Spleen and Ideal is the second album recorded by Dead Can Dance, released in 1985. The line up continued with Brendan Perry, Lisa Gerrard, Scott Rodger, James Pinker and Peter Ulrich with the addition of Gus Ferguson on Cello. A rather ethereal form of gothic music, similar to the origins of its debut album, Dead Can Dance, and followed a more world music- and neoclassical-oriented content, with lyrics based on the writings of Charles Baudelaire and Thomas de Quincey. It is considered the group's best album from a lyrical standpoint.^{[citation needed]}

Track listing

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

Release history

Country	Date
Australia	1 September 1986
United States	8 March 1994

External links

• Spleen and Ideal at Dead-Can-Dance.com
• Spleen and Ideal Lyrics at Dead-Can-Dance.com