Spirit of Eden - Critical Reception

Critical Reception

Spirit of Eden has been both acclaimed and panned by numerous music critics. Marcus Berkmann of The Spectator in a 2001 retrospective felt that the album was "almost wilfully obscure", with a musical style close to free-form jazz that was too far removed from The Colour Of Spring for fans to enjoy. Roy Wilkinson of Sounds felt that the band had "evolved into contemplative muso-techs", and while their lyrics were a weak point and the second side did not fully work, the first side achieved "magnificence". Chris Dafoe of The Globe and Mail was largely unimpressed: "At its best, this can be evocative and slightly unsettling. More frequently, however, it sounds like dreary New Age miserablism. Yawn Yawn."

In the 1992 Rolling Stone Album Guide, J.D. Considine rated the album 1 star out of 5: "Instead of getting better or worse, this band simply grew more pretentious with each passing year. . . . by Spirit of Eden, Mark Hollis's Pete Townshend-on-Dramamine vocals have been pushed aside by the band's pointless noodling." Simon Williams of NME noted the album's pretentiousness and aimlessness, but found it forgivable, commenting, "...they're resolute and determined, flaunting commercial rules with fascinating disregard for understanding or acceptance." A review in Q criticized the band for not even trying to create the hit singles they'd led the record label to expect, but concluded that "If Spirit Of Eden often recalls the pastoral epics of the early 70s, it has a range, ambition and self-sufficiency that enables Hollis and co to step out of time and into their own." PopMatters's retrospective review was less qualified in its praise, calling Spirit of Eden "an album for the ages." Pitchfork Media named Spirit of Eden the 34th best album of the 1980s. In 2006, Q magazine placed the album at #31 in its list of "40 Best Albums of the '80s". In 2012, Slant Magazine listed the album at #56 on its list of "Best Albums of the 1980s."