Dead Can Dances second album, Spleen And Ideal (1985), saw them experiment more with instrumentation, abandoning guitars in favour of cello, trombone and timpani. Widely acclaimed, there was now a richness of unification between voice and music, lyrics and structure, showing they had a concrete sense of the aural ideal they were striving towards. Its title was taken from Spleen et Idal, a collection of poems by 18th century French poet Charles Baudelaire. The 2016 LP version is a repress of the original release.

Tracklist:

1 De Profundis (Out of the Depths of Sorrow)
2 Ascension
3 Circumradiant Dawn
4 The Cardinal Sin
5 Mesmerism

1 Enigma of the Absolute
2 Advent
3 Avatar
4 Indoctrination (A Design for Living)