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Review [published June 2005]
David Sylvian: The Good Son Vs. The Only Daughter
Ismo Santala
An album of remixes, the nine tracks of The Good
Son Vs. The Only Daughter were made by musicians
handpicked by David Sylvian to shake up the subdued
sonic architecture of Blemish (2003). Because most of
the names of the remixers are not familiar to me, I can
only go by what I hear. And what I hear is, by and large,
impressive. Most of the new songs make good use of
the spareness of the original material, using Sylvian’s
lyrical richness and strong delivery as the basis for
adventurous reworkings.
When he described Blemish as an “impromptu suite
of songs for guitar, electronics and voice”, Sylvian
offered his listeners both a caveat and a challenge.
Because despite of the appearance of guitarist Derek
Bailey on a number of tracks, the overall sound of
Blemish is more stripped-down and unpolished than
Sylvian’s earlier solo albums such as 1999’s Dead
Bees On A Cake. The nearly 14-minute title track opens
the album and maps out the emotional territory of the
later compositions. Shimmers and quivers of electronic
ambience are broken by bursts of anxious words: “And
mine is an empty bed / I think she’s forgotten”.
BUY David Sylvian music online from and
The lyrics tell of betrayals, jealousies and break-ups
in the family, but seem to give only bits and pieces of
the whole story. On the cusp of transformation, each
of the personas is unable to accept the past while at the
same time remaining ambivalent about the future, to
the point where even favourable change is expressed in
wholly negative terms: “There’s a world of disappointment
to be lost”. The hesitancy to face up to the reality
of the situation (“Place a dummy on the roof / Stitch
him a tongue / Give him proof”) ends in failure, as it
must: “Like blemishes upon the skin / Truth sets in”.
Even if the remix artists allow Sylvian’s voice to stay
prominent and undisrupted, many of them play freely
with the lyrical content. When he cuts and reshuffles the
words of ‘Blemish’, Burnt Friedman produces a version
that is considerably more affirmative and upbeat
than the original. In contrast, he overdoes ‘Late Night
Shopping’, the source album’s most playful track, with
the inclusion of a sickly-sweet chorus.
Sweet Billy Pilgrim’s rearrangement of the vocal
parts of ‘The Heart Knows Better’ not only uplifts
the mood of the piece, but the new place of emphasis
510
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