Track Listing

1. Chant No 1 (I Don't Need This Pressure On)
2. Instinction
3. Paint Me Down
4. Coffee Club
5. Diamond
6. Pharaoh
7. Innocence And Science
8. Missionary

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #39758 in Music
• Released on: 2001-02-12
• Number of discs: 1

CD Description
Completely undeterred by critics' complaints that JOURNEYS TO GLORY was pompous and pretentious, Spandau Ballet upped the ante on its second album, DIAMOND. This would be the group's last stab at high-concept auteurism before TRUE made them lite-pop mainstream stars, and they made the most of it. The more dance-oriented tracks heat up the funk/R&B aspects of the Spandau sound considerably, adding horns and up-front percussion. The band branches out in several directions at once, however, with admirable gusto; the hushed, almost ambient ballad "Innocence and Science" has a somewhat Japanese feel, while "Pharoah" and "Missionary" flirt with a Middle Eastern sound. "Coffee Club" is an R&B-oriented tune that brashly defies dancing, due to a willfully quirky time signature."Instinction" bears the soaring themes of Spandau's debut, but "She Loved Like Diamond" stands out for its overt commerciality, hinting at what was to come next for the band.

Customer Reviews

Petition to End Undeserved Bad Press Against Diamond
Spandau Ballet's second of six albums certaintly isn't the most popular. It certaintly isn't the most well-known. And up until now, when it has been SOOO kindly re-released, it was so lowly thought of that it sank to collector's item rarity. The only person I knew with the unbelievable luck to have it on CD had payed an extremely large sum of money (for a CD) to get it from Australia. But now here we are. Diamond includes four of Spandau's hit singles: the massive Chant No.1 which was sampled on a song called 'Touch Me' a few weeks ago and reached the no. 1 slot, Paint Me Down; the video of which was banned on Top of the Pops, Instinction; produced by Trevor Horn, and finally the haunting She Loved Like Diamond. The other songs took on a more experimental feel, with African (Coffee Club), Egyptian (Pharoah), Indian (Innocence and Science) and Chinese (Missionary) influences. Certaintly towards the end of the album, you forget where you are and indeed who you are. I+S in particular belongs on a sleep-inducement or medidtaion CD. I get very upset when people tell others that Diamond isn't very good. What they mean is, it's not very commercial. Which it isn't. But in my experience commercial is a bad word, and Spandau Ballet's Diamond would be a fine example of what talent, creativity and originality hold over commerialism.

OK - but it was the eighties
Bought this because I loved Spandau as a New Romantic in the eighties. Having played this again the album seems dated and I was disappointed. Tony Hadleys fantastic voice was about the only saving grace - I guess that's the price of getting older!