THROWBACK THURSDAY: The Beloved – The Sun Rising [October 1989]

Whisper it quietly, but the evenings are starting to get longer.

Ok, as I write this, the temperature hasn’t been above two degrees for days, and it’s getting increasingly difficult to imagine being on a beach – anywhere – without several layers of clothing.

But with January now behind us, Summer is, albeit slowly, on the way, and with that in mind, what better time to think back some 29 years, and to one of the most sun-blissed Balearic anthems of all time.

The Beloved‘s The Sun Rising was released in October 1989, the first single off the following year’s Happiness.

The Beloved’s second album was reportedly influenced by the band’s Jon Marsh and Steve Waddington spending a lot of time in Shoom nightclub. The Sun Rising strongly supports that claim.

As the lyrics put it:
“Movement outside, silence inside /
Restless lovers spread your wings… as the day begins…”

Was there ever a more perfect description of a club emptying out, and the crowd emerging into the morning sunshine? Or better yet, the sun peering over the walls in the then-open air Ku, in Ibiza?

Check out Adam and Eve’s Son of the Rising House remix for a more dancefloor-friendly version, which is also arguably one of the first trance tracks ever made.

Fun fact: The iconic female vocal in The Sun Rising is taken from a track called ‘O Euchari’, which was originally composed by Hildegard von Bingen, a German abbess that lived during the 12th century. Even back then, they knew a killer lyric when they heard it, it would seem…

[Kudos to Rhino for the YouTube upload]