Anyone else up for some in-depth discussion?

[Burnsjed]

Thanks!
As soon as I have listened to the newer material, will definitely return and post my thoughts.
Sylvian is a subject that I feel very strongly about.
Music has been a massive part of my life since a kid, and after playing in a band for 10 years, have grown to appreciate good musicians.
I was very encouraged after listening to the samples of the SNS tracks on his website, and my initial thoughts on those tiny snippets were it is clearly more accessible then "Blemish".
It seems rather amazing that he is receiving plenty of accolades now, which I don't really recall back in the days of the first three albums, though that might just be my failing memory!

[sonic_chronicler]

For ages I thought they'd brought in a guest vocalist on Pocket Full of Change! I've always thought, though, that rather than pushing forward with exploring the possibilities of his voice, what he's doing on that track is reverting to his natural voice - IMO he sounds more like his Adolescent Sex/Obscure Alternatives self on Pocket Full of Change thn on anything since Quiet Life.

You can't really believe that his voice on Adolescent Sex & Obscure alternatives was his 'Natural Voice' can you? It is so forced.

IMHO since he changed his style round around about Quiet Life he has been singing within his range. That range has changed over the years (as it does for us all) I'm far happier to hear him sing what he is capable of than to stretch it and end up with something he couldn't re-create in a live environment. I don't think we're going to see a 'Medulla' from David anytime soon.

However, I do get frustrated with his dismissals of his early work, which are often quite frankly insulting to his fans, implying that if they can like pre-Tin Drum Japan they can't have any taste, because the work was hollow and not emotionally true.

A lot of fans seem to have that opinion, and really, it's not one I share. Yes, I love the Japan material, but, when you consider how far removed hs is from that now, can you really blame him for not wanting to play it.

He doesn't totally disown it, he usually throws us a re-worked snippet - and can we really expect more? Some of the stuff is nearly thirty years old, he's got other parts of his back catalogue he wants to pay attention to. Besides, if he tried to sneer his way through some of the early stuff, it would just sound wrong.

As far as being 'insulting to his fans' I really don't get that - I realy don't. Would you put stories from your formative years at school on display for all to see? I'm sure I wouldn't.

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but I for one am more than happy to let him take the path he chooses. We should really be happy that he is still a relevant artist after all these years when so many of his contemporaries have either given up music altogether or are plugging the 80's revival scene.

Sonic

[Melaszka]

A lot of fans seem to have that opinion, and really, it's not one I share. Yes, I love the Japan material, but, when you consider how far removed hs is from that now, can you really blame him for not wanting to play it.

As far as being 'insulting to his fans' I really don't get that - I realy don't. Would you put stories from your formative years at school on display for all to see? I'm sure I wouldn't.

Sorry, I obviously didn't make myself clear. I don't mind him wanting to put the Japan stuff behind him, not play it live, whatever. That's entirely his decision and his choice. As I personally am much more a fan of Sylvian's solo material than of Japan then it also makes a lot of sense to me for artistic reasons, but even if it didn't, even if I thought Japan was a million times better than his current stuff, he's a human being with a right to draw up his own concert programme, regardless of his fans' wishes and tastes.

The only thing which I do find "insulting to his fans" is the occasional comment he's made in interviews to the effect that anyone who can still see anything of worth in Japan's music (or even - shock! horror! -prefer it to what he's doing now) is lacking in intelligence, depth or taste. OK, I'm sure he didn't put it that baldly, but that seemed to be what he was implying. And (with reference to kitaj's point about psychological diary-writing in Sylvian's work) his implication that the fact that his early work was not autobiographically "true" in the sense that say Ghosts or A History of Holes is, means that it's shallow and worthless, and only shallow or insensitive people would not pick up on that and actually like it.

I'm not saying he should still play Japan songs live, I'm not saying he should like Japan material, all I'm saying is that he should allow other people to have different taste to him and admire work of his which he doesn't value without insulting them or their taste.

But, yes, I concede that it must be incredibly frustrating to have produced a body of sublime, critically-acclaimed "serious" work over the past two decades, and yet still be most widely known for the (to your mind)disposable pop you produced when you were barely out of your teens and hadn't really worked out who you were yet, and I can understand him getting a bit eggy about that at times.

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but I for one am more than happy to let him take the path he chooses.

I agree. I hated all the ugly words that were thrown around on fan forums when Blemish came out - it was the record he wanted to make, whether people liked it or not, and as an artist he has a right, nay a duty, to do the work he wants to do. People don't have to like it, they don't have to buy it, but I don't think they have the right to say he shouldn't have done it, or that he "owes it" to his fans to produce work they will like.

We should really be happy that he is still a relevant artist after all these years when so many of his contemporaries have either given up music altogether or are plugging the 80's revival scene.

Yes. I can understand the temptation some of his contemporaries have felt to do the novelty nostalgia tour thing - many of them probably desperately need the money these days - but it probably is tantamount to taking out a full page ad in the Times saying "I'm not a real musician! Don't take anything I've ever released seriously!" And think it's a real credit to all the Japan boys (maybe even particularly Rob/Mick/Steve/Richard, who haven't enjoyed the financial stability that David has) that you can't imagine them even thinking about going down that route for a single second. Or giving up music. They've all wanted to produce new stuff and move forward, not rest on novelty laurels.

[Steerpike]

..I love playing devil's advocate!

Complete off-topic rambling: am I the only person left on earth who doesn't fancy David Sylvian? I frequently feel half in love with the persona he projects through his lyrics and from an objective viewpoint I think he's very beautiful, but he doesn't. you know, leave me carnally excited. Does anyone else feel that way?

I agree Mel, I don't fancy David either. As someone once said to me, I admire David for his song writing and his art, while I admire his brother for his musicianship and his a***