To:       Recipients of 4AD-L digests <4AD-L@JHUVM.HCF.JHU.EDU>
Date:    Tue, 20 Dec 1994 20:42:55 -0800
From:    vilexile 
Subject: ITN - Anatomy of a Poet

(Forgive the crosspost to WSD-L. I haven't seen this album discussed
there, it's *kind* of wsd-thislisty, and there is Karl Blake content I
thought might be of interest.)


On Tue, 20 Dec 1994, MR NORMAN N LEVENSTEIN wrote:

> today, i saw what i guess is a fairly new in the nursery cd. anatomy of
> a poet. did this come out after the ambush of ghosts sdtk? has anyone
> heard it? it looks like it's got some of that narration stuff that
> drives me nuts.

If you don't like the spoken word stuff, I dunno what you'll think of the
singing on this album. It is new; I think it came out around September
but of course I could not get ahold of it until about a month ago.
Anyway, personally as an In the Nursery fan, I love the album and would
rank it between Duality and Sense (Sense being my favorite of their
albums, so you can judge my comments based on that.

The nice orchestrations are still there, as are the snare and yes the
spoken word. The combination of string, brass and piano, real or fake, is
richer here than on the last two albums. (I'm not counting An Ambush of
Ghosts because it was mainly rehash...with samples from the movie. Yuck.)
But given Ambush, I was pleasantly surprised with this album, especially
taking into consideration that someone had described their new direction
as 'tehno' which it is not. Nor is it a new direction at all, except
towards a fuller and more dramatic sound. One interesting change that has
been going on for the last few albums is that they are carrying melodies
through sort of the "wrong" chords, not taking things so far as
dissonance but into some really nice, quirky territory--big sweeping
dramatic sevenths and sus fours and that sort of thing.

For the spoken word nonsense, it is pretty close to Duality except that
there is now more singing. The female vocal is even nicer for it, though,
and the male vocal is kind of woven into a chorus that sounds almost
Skinny Puppyish (circa Too Dark Park)...not that there is shouting or
anything. There is also a song sung by Karl Blake--"The Seventh Seal",
written by S. Engel of whom I know naught. There's acoustic guiar
strumming, here. I don't really know what it's doing on the album, but it
fits nicely. It's a superb collaboration, though, and I hope they
continue it at some point. (Is other Karl Blake like this?)

The only thing about this album that annoys me is this one song where
what the guy is saying and the way he's saying it borders on disgusting.
perfectly fine Oscar Wilde text, but the way it is performed...YUCK! It
reminds me of Barry and Lavon from The State. It's narcissistic and
entirely unbelievable. I'm not even compelled to pay attention to what's
said.

Forgiving this, and another track which isn't too much better, the album
is great. Better than Duality if you can look past this one problem.

One other thing: The artwork for this album is absolutely beautiful. A
weird, overexposed photograph of...a spine or something, and a marvelous
little logo thathas to be seen to be believed. Probably the nicest
calligraphy I have seen anywhere, even the lovesliescrushing album and
The Nephilim.

Anyway, highly recommended, especially when this genre has been so
overrun by charlatans, bandwagon-jumpers, and often an intolerable pop
sense.

Anyway, sorry for the rambling and the stale writing. I am feeling pretty
sick at the moment.

 einexile