Of Sylvian’s immediate post-Japan work, 1986’s Gone to Earth is the most under appreciated. It receives a mere 3 1/2 stars on allmusicguide (ie. roughly a decent score of 70%). Perhaps this is due to its nature as more of a ‘mood piece’ than Brilliant Trees and Secrets of the Beehive (not that those two aren’t mood pieces, but the near hit single potential of quite a few of their songs is immediately obvious). It is a double album, half song, half instrumental (although I only have the original CD edition, condensed to 13 tracks, so I’ve not quite heard all of it). Coincidentally, its 30th anniversary approaches as I’ve been spending some time with it, so an appreciation post was a must.
Here, we find Sylvian approaching more atmospheric territory, even on the song side. The hooks are less obvious than they were on Brilliant Trees (and would be on Secrets of the Beehive), but that doesn’t mean they aren’t there. The ghostly decending keyboard line on opener ‘Taking the Veil’, the introductory guitar line on easy listening single ‘Silver Moon’. Some of this stuff is seriously muzak. It’s well done muzak, however, conjuring up memories of long forgotten trips to department stores in the 1990s in the best nostalgic way possible, with the use of flugelhorn and sax. Plus the gorgeous guitar tones – fairly clean, but sometimes lightly distorted, not too chorusy.
Sylvian’s voice retreats further from the carefully affected croon he used in Japan (the bleach blonde hair is gone too). It’s still a carefully affected croon (no other way to describe it really), but now it’s pitched a bit lower and loses what could be described as the new-romanticisms (he’d hate that I’d used that term). The vocals bring the goods on the song side; careful phrasing and considered harmonies abound, but for me the best moment is the heartbreaking “If I’m losing you/Then there’s nothing more that I can say… As time’s come to show/I’m told nothing more than I should know” refrain on the lengthy ‘Before the Bullfight’, which may be the best piece on the whole album. It has no need to hurry, as a comforting blanket of synths envelop you, gently surrounding you with more beautiful guitar work, only reaching the verse after 2:43.
The instrumental songs are haunting and melancholy in the way the best instrumental/ambient/mood music is. My pick of the bunch is possibly ‘The Healing Place’, a long dreamy guitar piece. It mostly consists of a repeated riff (reminds me of Bad Moon Rising/EVOL Sonic Youth) with jazzy guitar soloing. Or ‘Answered Prayers’, an ambient bed of synths that wouldn’t sound out of place in an anime soundtrack.
Sylvian’s overall vision and songwriting is at its peak on Gone to Earth, as is his ability to assemble/attract musicians to aid in the execution of his ideas (one of his more Bowie-like qualities) – in addition to Steve Jansen and Richard Barbieri, we get Robert Fripp, Bill Nelson, Mel Collins (plus others I’m not familiar with) all contributing to an album that is beautiful, haunting, melancholy, nostalgic. ❤️❤️❤️❤️💔 (that symbolises 4 1/2 stars).