A variant but otherwise excellent album. The participation of many people in the process of creation makes for the variety of styles. Most of the music is acoustic with some synthetic elements and distortions on the background (and sometimes, unfortunately, on the foreground).John Balance is a great musician, but as a singer he is quite anti-musical. When he does get to "sing" a few lines with his very distinctive voice, he manages to ruin the mood. It is hard for me to understand their choise of Nick Cave to sing and recite in the album. But after the initial shock and troubled expressions, one gets used especially to his version of "All the Pretty Little Horsies" which turns out to be a treat.
Of more positive guest appearances there are, as always, Steven Stapleton and Michael Cashmore. Stapleton's daughter Lilith also has a significant part on the album, which is a very sweet and pretty idea. Works well.
As for David Tibet's vocals, what can anyone say? They are as intense and perfect as ever. Lyrically, childhood (always an important thing for Tibet) and the loss of it are the themes of this album. The lyrics are very touching.
After listening to this album, Tibet managed to coin some terms into my everyday vocabulary, such as "the inmost light". Also, this is the first time i came across his style of coining expressions by joining words together to create the association desired, such as "godgoldglow" or "fullgreen." Both of these are examples of Tibet's power as a poet.
The one major disappointment on this album was the song "Twilight Twilight Nihil Nihil". Having read the lyrics beforehand, i was expecting a lot. But as it turned out, Tibet is not even present in the song. In its chaos it is less powerful than C93's usual scary works, like "The Starres Are Marching Sadly Home", which is probably because of his absence. The song just would have deserved Tibet reciting.
This is as Current 93 as any album can get!
the long shadows fall all the pretty little horsies calling for vanished faces i the inmost night the carnival is dead and gone the bloodbells chime calling for vanished faces ii the frolic the inmost light twilight twilight nihil nihil the inmost light itself patripassian (epilogue)