Post #2-Toward the Within (Dead Can Dance)

Options:

1. Anon: Missa Quem Malignus Spiritus -2. Gloria-Andrew Kirkman: The Binchois Consort--Music for Henry V & The House of Lancaster

2. La Fiesta Mexicana: II Mass- H. Owen Reed--Fiesta!

3. Urban Aire-Afro Celt Sound System--Volume 2: Release

4. The Real-Tracy Bonham--Jeana's Mix 2005 Summer

5. Piece for Solo Flute-Dead Can Dance--Toward the Within[Live]

I'm very split on live albums.  On the one hand, I love the energy of a live show, but with a few exceptions, live albums never quite capture that.  Some live compilations with shows from a few places can showcase some of the fun that comes in shows.  Moxy Fruvous and Barenaked Ladies for instance often had fun crowd interaction or spontaneous jokes that show the character of the band.  For a few select groups or individual musicians, I prefer live music.  Stan Rogers for instance is much better live than in the studio.  But most of the time, I feel the live aspect doesn't capture the energy and add annoying crowd noise or inferior recording quality.  Most bands don't measure up live to what can be captured with studio magic(never underestimate the value of a good sound engineer).  

Toward the Within is one of my notable exceptions on this.  Dead Can Dance is one of the very few bands that I collect exhaustively.  And while their albums vary, this is one of their best.  One of the nice aspects of this album is the attention paid to song transitions.  Lots of live albums don't have any sense of continuity, they kind of jump from piece to piece, sometimes from city to city, but Toward the Within really captures the feeling of a single concert with the audience at rapt attention.  Part of this comes from good sound engineering.  The recordings capture significant echo, giving a great sense of space, especially on the vocals.  But the main part is the way it captures transitions from one song to the next, especially the instrumental swell between "I Can See Now" and "American Dreaming" which turns them into a wonderful medley.  I can't even listen to the songs individually, but only as a matched pair.

Another excellent aspect of this album is the inclusion of many pieces that do not appear on other DCD albums.  My favorites include "I am Stretched on Your Grave", a traditional piece that captures the plaintive nature of the song, "American Dreaming", with it's wonderful use of acoustic guitar.

But ultimately, what makes this album wonderful are Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard's voices.  Something about the live nature of the album brings their voices to life in a way that the studio recordings don't capture.  They truly are amazing singers and this showcases that very well.  Overall, I love this album.  It's one of my favorite live albums and one of my favorite Dead Can Dance albums.

Recommended Context for Listening: In the dark, when feeling moody.

What Playlists has this made it onto? My Moody Autumn playlist has some tracks from this.

Who Should Buy This Album? Dead Can Dance fans, which should be everyone.