Why No Love For David Sylvian's 'Dead Bees On A Cake'?

Ok, let's start with the premise that I'm playing Devil's advocate here:

Dead Bees On A Cake was Sylvian's first solo album proper in more than a decade when it was released in 1999 — in that time, he'd done the Rain Tree Crow album, the Fripp album, collaborated on several others' records and released several ambient records as well. And he then puts out Dead Bees... — fourteen tracks, many among the most tuneful of his career, and a lot to chew on.

To be sure, this is a David Sylvian album through and through — the pristine avant-jazz arrangements by Ryuichi Sakamoto, guests like Kenny Wheeler, typically sumptuous vocals, queasy electronics, and a decidedly spiritual subject matter. There's a sense of retrospective here, too; one track ("Praise") features a recording of some eastern singer over Sylvian's ambient textures that recall his work with Holger Czukay, while another, the angular "Godman," could be mistaken for an outtake from the The First Day sessions with Fripp.

Yet despite the urge to dismiss Dead Bees as "Sylvian-by-numbers," which several critics in fact did, the guy didn't exactly mail it in here. As noted, many of the songs are catchy. Several tracks (such as "Pollen Path") have a loose, improvisatory feel reminiscent of Bitches Brew's atonal Rhodes battles. There's nod to trip hop on tracks like "I Surrender" while songs like "Krishna Blue" and "Midnight Sun" pretty seamlessly integrated, respectively, the likes of Talvin Singh's tablas and Marc Ribot's bluesy work with Tom Waits into Sylvian's sonic palette. Of particular note are the "Dobro" sketches with Bill Frisell (several more of which were to appear of the Everything and Nothing comp in 2002), which in retrospect are a clear precursor to Sylvian's work with Derek Bailey on the magnificent and critically-acclaimed Blemish.

For all this, Dead Bees On A Cake remains the black sheep of the man's releases — at the bare minimum, the one no one seems to cite as their favorite. Sylvian obviously thought that he was returning in a major way with this record — why didn't we? In retrospect, is it better than we cared to acknowledge? Or is it just that we hold David Sylvian to a higher standard than most artists?