Search - Daevid Allen :: Dreamin a Dream

Simple Beauty

07/12/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is Allen's best work since "Now is the Happiest Time of Your Life" "Nexistepas." More of those gorgeous, shimmering ballads with the softly picked guitar accompaniment, here beautifully enhanced by some wonderful fiddle playing. The arrangements are clear and sparse and let all of the beauty of the sound come through. The sensibility of this record is not that far from XTC's "Apple Venus Vol. 1," in the sense that both have crystalline acoustic sounds and are rather pagan in their sentiment. Apple Venus, though, is much more polished. Allen has the knack for writing these wonderfully beautiful songs and making you feel like you're listening to the first run-through. This is absolutely beautiful record. I wish he'd do more like it."

A masterpiece by Daevid Allen

Paul Minot | Waterville, ME United States | 09/09/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I'm an old Gong freak, like many Daevid Allen fans are, and have found his solo work spotty. I loved "Who's Afraid" with Kramer, but haven't found any of Daevid's solo work very focused since "Good Morning." I got this CD in a box set that I bought to get Gong's "You (Remix)" CD (which is unbelievably good, BTW), and didn't give this CD a fair listen for 2 years. Now that I have done so in the past 2 weeks, I have found it to be Daevid's most focused, daring, and mature work ever. It's a very personal collection of songs, as is detailed in Daevid's liner notes, and it shows. He deals with profound issues of male identity, love, childbirth, fear, and mortality in songs of extraordinary beauty. Some tasteful levity is thrown in to lighten the mood at just the right times, but he never regresses to the outright silliness that sometimes puts people off of his music. Although every song on this record is noteworthy, one in particular stands out for it's courage and brilliance. "The Rapist" deals with this most heinous of violations from a view of moral equanimity, and miraculously manages to explore this issue in a song of stunning poetry and haunting beauty. I would dare say that it is a masterpiece of songcraft worthy of any of the greats--Dylan, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, etc.--yet is actually a braver song that I can recall any of them ever doing. Daevid's life issues have clearly taken him to a new level as a songwriter, and the beautiful but simple production suits the songs to a tee. Buy this if you can get it."

Daevid Allen - 'Dreamin' A Dream' (Cleopatra) 3 1/2 stars

Mike Reed | USA | 06/30/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Pretty good for a solo effort by the founder of Gong/Soft Machine.Some may disagree,but in several ways,I think it's about as good as his 'Who's Afraid?' disc(see my review).Allen is given a helping hand here by violinist Graham Clark.To me,'Dreamin'...' is a bit like Allen setting up in a club somewhere and playing a set of acoustic numbers as such.Tracks that I dug the most were "High Points","Big Daddy",the well written "Sittin' In A Teashop" and "No One's Slave".Overall,'Dreamin' A Dream' is a bunch of intimate tunes that Allen has decided to share with fans.Nice!"