May 18, 2016
The Dream Academy: The Dream Academy US CD [1985]
- Life In A Northern Town
- The Edge Of Forever
- [Johnny] New Light
- In Places On The Run
- This World
- Bound To Be
- Moving On
- The Love Parade
- The Party
- One Dream
After delving into the debut album by Stephen Duffy for three days in a row, what else could I follow it with but a look at the debut album by The Dream Academy? Both acts were inextricably linked in my mind:
- They shared a manager – Tarquin Gotch [who one day deserves a New Wave MVP entry of his own].
- Both acts had bass playing on their records by Guy Pratt, early in his career where everything he played on in in my Record Cell. [Yes, Guy Pratt is pencilled in for a New Wave MVP too!]
- Both Nick Laird-Clowes [has there ever been as posh a name as that?] and Stephen Duffy were big fans of singer-songwriter Nick Drake a good decade before his rediscovery/commercial viability and wrote songs reflecting this influence.
- Both acts debut albums had production on a track or two by a member of The Art Of Noise. J.J. Jezcalik for Duffy and Gary Langan for The Dream Academy.
- Finally, The NME, in an attempt to damn Stephen Duffy with backhanded praise, once said of him that “we do not need another Paddy McAloon.” The cheeky Duffy once used this in a press advertisement, to my delight. While I would argue that we do; we always do, the fact of the matter was that in that regard, Nick Laird-Clowes was more obviously your man!
I first heard The Dream Academy on British music show The Tube, where they had made an in-house video for the song “Life In A Northern Town.” It was a delightful song that captured my attention immediately. The delicate orchestration mixed real strings and ferocious tympani for a warm, vibrant effect. That the band had a member, Kate St. John [Ex-Ravishing Beauties] whose lead instruments were oboe [be still, my beating heart] and cor angalais showed that they were willing to stick out from the bulk of the Mid-80s pack.
Listening to this album now, I’m struck mostly by how close singer Laird-Clowes is hewing to the style developed commercially by Paddy McAloon of Prefab Sprout. Though I as usual, maintain, that McAloon lifted his mature style from producer Thomas Dolby as evidenced by several tracks on his album “The Flat Earth,” produced a year before linking up with Prefab Sprout for their seminal “Steve McQueen/Two Wheels Good” album. But, yeah, tracks like “[Johnny] New Light” fairly reek of received McAloonisms. [is that a word?]
The use of the Johnny archetype was straight from the Sprout’s playbook but where Laird-Clowes differs the most from McAloon is in his love of bombast that surfaces throughout this material every now and then. McAloon was far more intimate with his songwriting, but Laird-Clowes seemed to favor the grand gesture, making these songs a notch or two below those of his peers. Still, it was heartening to hear “Life In A Northern Town” scale to the lofty heights of number seven on the US top 40 of late 1985. A full eight spots higher than the song charted in the UK top 40. I’ll take what I can get!
I remember seeing ads for The Act’s “Too Late At The 20” album in Trouser Press in 1981, but I never had the pleasure. Nick got his [false] start in that band, which also happened to contain David Gilmour’s younger brother Mark. This paid off when after The Act broke up, David used his clout to back Laird-Clowes in his Dream Academy bid a few years later. In fact, Gilmour co-produces all but one of the tracks here. Ultimately, the real pull for my ears 31 years later was all of the goodness that Kate St. John put into this music, though her sax playing was a little too softjazzrock for my tastes. Fortunately, it was completely overshadowed by the oboe and cor anglais on display here. I like this album enough to listen to it occasionally, but I later bought the third Dream Academy album only to quickly flip it. The tale endeth here.
– 30 –
![Want List: Visage DLX RM […finally!]](https://i0.wp.com/postpunkmonk.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/visage-dlxrmuscda.jpeg?resize=200%2C200&ssl=1)
Post-Punk Monk 
I never delved any further into the DA catalog than this one, but I still enjoy this one a lot. I bought it back in the day after hearing “Life” maybe once, lured in by the apparent Nick Drake-isms. I know it’s all just ear candy, but it’s divine ear candy to me even now.
I hadn’t thought about Stephen Duffy or Paddy McAloon comparisons, but now they’ve been made, they seem obvious.
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Michael Toland – In the case of Duffy, at least, Nick Drake was also his admitted songwriting target, so was it any wonder? As for McAloon, I’ve not read many interviews with him to know if he was intentionally moving in a Drake direction.
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Did you ever hear the Kate St John albums? Very good indeed, particularly the first.
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Big Mark – They are on my infinite want list.
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I came here to say the same thing.
I was late to the Dream Academy party and actually backed into it after buying Kate St. John’s Indescibable Night and then working backwards through her resume.
And I know that mashups aren’t your thang but others here may appreciate the tip to Audiodiles mashup of DA and Go West AND the Chemical Brothers.
Audiodile dot com and go to the mashups tab.
SOOOOOO damn earwormy.
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Guy Pratt – absolute MVP. His book is great. And his podcast (Rockonteurs with Gary Kemp) is great, too. It managed the unthinkable: it softened me on Spandau because of the Guy/Gary chemistry. I won’t listen to SB, but I stopped rolling my eyes at the mention of their name anymore
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Matteo – Welcome to the comments! Any friends of Guy Pratt are friends of mine. And you remind me that I still need to dig in to the Rockonteurs podcast, but it’s true… I’m not a “podcast guy.” It’s so difficult for me to find the time to listen to anything but music! It’s true that Spandau can be somewhat ludicrous… but I’ll go to the mat every time defending an album as daft [yet thrilling] as “Diamond!”
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I had no idea they had even made an album,I never looked into it nor even saw a copy!
I have the 7″ of Life… of course and several albums with Kate appearing (the superb ‘The Familiar’ with Roger Eno) and Channel Light Vessel,Ravishing Beauties etc.
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Gavin – That makes me wonder if the Dream Academy hit bigger in the US than the UK. I wish there had been proper releases from Ravishing Beauties. All of those ladies made beautiful music.
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Virginia Astley is over on Bandcamp now and all of her music that was out of print is back in print. I scooped it all up and replaced other people rips that I snagged from blogs when that was the only way to find it.
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Virginia Astley is over on Bandcamp now and all of her music that was out of print is back in print. I scooped it all up and replaced other people rips that I snagged from blogs when that was the only way to find it.
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The Dream Academy needs to get more praise for the song “Power to Believe “ which was featured in (if you can believe it} “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” in the eighties. An outstanding and haunting melody.
Bill Ashcraft
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