Dead Can Dance: The Serpent's Egg [4AD]

Why you'll love it

This 4AD reissue comes with a printed inner sleeve carrying the lyrics. The album opens with "The Host of Seraphim," which AllMusic called so jaw-droppingly good that awe is about the right response.

This edition

• Printed inner sleeve
• Lyrics included

About the album

Most bands make their grandest records in expensive studios. Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard made The Serpent's Egg largely in their council flat in a tower block on London's Isle of Dogs, which makes its cathedral-sized sound all the more remarkable. It was their fourth album for 4AD, and the last they made as a couple.

"The Host of Seraphim" is the showpiece, Gerrard's wordless voice soaring over a slow, drone-heavy hymn, and it went on to soundtrack Baraka, The Mist and a run of film trailers. Perry's hurdy-gurdy, a small string section and co-producer John A. Rivers fill out "Severance," "Song of Sophia" and "Ullyses," and Vaughan Oliver designed the sleeve with Perry. Perry said the title came from aerial photos of rivers winding across the Earth like a serpent. David Navarro Sust adds guest vocals, and Gerrard produced several tracks herself.

The Chemical Brothers flipped "Song of Sophia" backwards for "Song to the Siren," and Ulver and Cattle Decapitation have both covered "In the Kingdom of the Blind." Not bad going for a record made within earshot of the lift.

Also at Kops: more Dead Can Dance on vinyl · browse Industrial & Goth

Tracklist

Listen

On 4AD (cat# CAD 3638), a reissue of the 1988 album.