| Black Ships Ate the Sky | |
| Type: | studio |
| Artist: | Current 93 |
| Cover: | Black ships ate the sky alternate.jpg |
| Released: | 23 May 2006 |
| Genre: | Neofolk |
| Length: | 75:19 |
| Label: | Durtro |
| Prev Title: | How He Loved the Moon (Moonsongs for Jhonn Balance) |
| Prev Year: | 2005 |
| Next Title: | Inerrant Rays of Infallible Sun (Blackship Shrinebuilder) |
| Next Year: | 2006 |
Black Ships Ate the Sky is a 2006 album by the UK-based musical ensemble Current 93. The album features numerous guest vocalists, such as Anohni, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, Marc Almond, and Shirley Collins. It features nine versions of the 1816 Appalachian tune Idumæa, with lyrics of a 1763 Methodist hymn by Charles Wesley,[1] [2] each featuring vocals by a different artist. The album was issued in digipak packaging, with a 56-page booklet containing liner notes, lyrics, photographs, and credits.
In order to assist with funding for the album, customers were able to pre-order a copy. These 'subscribers' received a mention in the liner notes, as well as a limited edition extra CD, entitled I Am Black Ship, consisting of alternate versions of the tracks from Black Ships Ate the Sky.
The track "Sunset (The Death of Thumbelina)" was featured on the National Public Radio program All Songs Considered on 10 August 2006.
In December 2006, Current 93 released an "alternate version" of the album titled Black Ships Eat the Sky. This limited edition record features different versions and a different mix of the album, which Tibet described as "far more intimate and more emphatically acoustic than the original version." The songs of Black Ships Eat the Sky have the same titles (unlisted on the CD cover itself - only available online) as their …Ate the Sky counterparts, with the exception that track 20 is titled "Why Cæsar is Burning Part I".