"Everything and Nothing"

[Fire Rose 45]

Hi!

I'm a new Sylvian fan and just won an "Everything and Nothing" CD on eBay. I'm wanting some input about this CD. What are your favorite and least favorite tracks and why? In particular I'd like to know what you think about "Scent of Magnolia", "Cover Me With Flowers", and "Albuquerque". Thanks for your help.

[Simonp]

Everything and Nothing? As a starting point for new fans I think it does a good job. Personally I would like to have seen some rarer, unreleased material on there but the DBOAC session stuff makes up for that. I quite like Magnolia, love the strings. Cover Me With Flowers is hellish, sorry but his vocals and the whole sound is just muddy. The dobro pieces are quite nice though and the inclusion of Some Kind Of fool is a real plus. Great track.

[camphorvan]

Hi Fire Rose. I like all of the tracks you mention; I think it's a great compilation and absolutely ideal as a starting point; 29/30 odd tracks as well, so you'll get a good idea of where Sylvian is coming from and it's good value (depending of course on what you paid for it). Magnolia I really like - it was going to be on the studio album previous to E+N (Dead Bees) but he struggled with the drums; he later got in a drum programmer who sorted it all out for him. It has a really positive vibe about it. I think it's a strong track. Alburqurque (can I spell it? Can I be bothered to find the CD to check the spelling? No....) I love also. Really peaceful evening song. Flowers I think he remixed from a contribution he made to the Marco Polo album (not sure offhand); again I like this track - about a baptism of some kind or another I think. There's a really nice instrumental melodic line in there. On the whole, in my view, you've made the right choice to buy E+N as the first step. Enjoy!

C

[Chet]

happy to hear about new Sylvian fans.
but I do not think E&N is a good way to start.
as an album it doesn't tell a "story".
Brilliant Trees, Gone To Earth and Secrets Of The Beehive all has a dramaturgical build up that I think is important for Sylvians work of art.
E&N is, I don't know... empty. I mean in storytelling.
and I don't really like the choice of songs, and I definately don't like the fact of bringing back old tapes and adding new vocals and keyboards...
sorry.
but Brilliant Trees and start from the beginning of Davids solo career.
but welcome to a fantastic world of wonderful music.
cheers

[baht habit]

Camphor, the track you may be thinking of from Marco Polo is The Golden Way.
Cover Me With Flowers includes some distinctive guitar work from Steve Tibbetts and that draws me in to the piece much more than Sylvian's lyrics or melody lines. Am I correct when I hear Steve Jansen actually stop and start over again due to a a slight mechanical drumming mishap around the 4:10-4:12 minute mark? Or do you think that was just an intentional change of emphasis in time signature and accents?
The dobro pieces with Frisell don't measure up to the 1st one on DBOAC, in my opinion. And Scent Of Magnolia fails to interest me much, though I am not sure why. I like the idea of Sylvian dabbling with the drums n bass genre, but wasn't too impressed with the result. If given a choice, I do happen to prefer the 'Portebello Mix' version that was included with the single. For me, the real jewel unearthed on Everything And Nothing was the studio version of Blinding Light Of Heaven which was also included on that single and the long awaited release of the track Ride. These two tracks were alone worth the price --- everything else was just gravy on top.

[camphorvan]

Baht
Couldn't spot a mistake - just a snare hit I think; I don't think there's a change in time signature it's 4/4 all the way through isn't it? Not great with time sigs so not overly sure.

Agreed about Ride and Blinding Light, though I think the latter pales in comparison to the Damage version; which I listened to the other day and it still utterly floats my boat. But so many of us were waiting for these two tracks for a long time, you're right. I forget how excited I was at the prospect of finally get to hear them.

C

[E.T.]

I love "Some Kind Of Fool".
I hear the song all through today in my head!
Somehow, when I heard the song for the first time, I felt nothing, but after I heard old one on youtube, I became hooked on it!

but I don't need that female vo. haha

nothing else remains
I've promised to stay
and I don't

and I love that synthesizers, horns, orchestra

sounds like this to me

tu dire comme ca
comprends pas
mon amour

you say like this
can't understand
my love

maybe I'm wrong in some part

[Fire Rose 45]

Thanks so much for the input, everyone. I really appreciate it. I can't wait to get the CD!