The Cedar Lounge Revolution

This Weekend I’ll Mostly Be Listening to… This Mortal Coil May 31, 2014

One of ‘groups’ I found by accident in the mid 80’s. I was very much a fan of many things released by 4AD and read a positive review of the album “It’ll end in tears”. The review lodged somewhere in my brain and some stage later I saw it in a record shop and bought it. It was one of those albums that I bought having gone into the shop to buy a record, no record in particular but a record. There were albums I’d save up for , albums I’d have on a wish list, new albums by a certain artist that I’d have to get but this was one I just bought on spec. I must have had a ‘record token’ or birthday money burning a hole in my pocket!
The album didn’t disappoint and it was a strange mix of haunting instrumentals with Elizabeth Fraser of the Cocteau Twins and Lisa Gerrard of Dead Can’t Dance among others doing vocals on the other songs. It was one of the first albums I’d have listened to with headphones on just to fully appreciate it.
A few years later the second album “Filigree & Shadow” came out , it was a double album and though it was very good I wasn’t too found a number of the tracks, which of course was a curse when listening on a record player.
Then in 1991 the final album ‘Blood’ was released. Another Double Album it was very good and contained a lot more instrumental tracks than the previous two albums.

This piece from the 4AD website sums them up very well

This Mortal Coil was not a band, but a unique collaboration of musicians recording in various permutations, the brainchild of 4AD kingpin Ivo Watts-Russell. The idea was to allow artists the creative freedom to record material outside of the realm of what was expected of them; it also created the opportunity for innovative cover versions of songs personal to Ivo. An example of this was the Cocteau Twins-starring version of Tim Buckley’s ‘Song to the Siren’ which became the first This Mortal Coil release in 1983. Originally intended as a B-side for the ‘Sixteen Days’ 12″, the result was so powerful that it was decided it should be the A-side of a 7″ single.

This Mortal Coil’s full-length debut, It’ll End In Tears, arrived in October 1984 and was a long-term feature at the top of the UK Indie charts. In addition to the Cocteaus, this brilliantly-woven aural tapestry featured members of 4AD artists Colourbox, Dead Can Dance, Modern English, Xmal Deutschland and The Wolfgang Press, plus ex-Magazine/Buzzcocks frontman Howard Devoto and celebrated cellist Martin McCarrick (who has worked with everyone from Marc Almond to Therapy?).

Ivo turned his attention to the follow-up record shortly after It’ll End In Tears was released. Work began at Palladium in Edinburgh, with Martin McCarrick and studio proprietor Jon Turner, and the record was finished with John Fryer at Blackwing in London. Named after a song by the ’60s band Fever Tree, Filigree And Shadow was intended from the start as a double album. As before, he drew on a large pool of musicians – Simon Raymonde made important contributions, as did members of Colourbox, Dif Juz and The Wolfgang Press – but this time the bulk of the vocalists came from outside 4AD’s orbit. The selection of cover versions included material by Tim Buckley, Gene Clark, Tom Rapp, Judy Collins and Colin Newman. Filigree And Shadow was issued in September 1986, preceded by a limited edition 10-inch single coupling striking interpretations of Van Morrison’s ‘Come Here My Love’ and Talking Heads’ ‘Drugs’.

A reflection of a turbulent period in Ivo’s life, 1990’s Blood was always intended to be the collective’s final recording. Once again, John Fryer, Jon Turner and Martin McCarrick all played significant roles in shaping the music, while the vocals came from This Mortal Coil newcomers such as Caroline Crawley, Heidi Berry, Kim Deal and Tanya Donelly. Cover versions this time out included songs by Chris Bell, Syd Barrett, Rain Parade, Rodney Crowell and Mary Margaret O’Hara, while Ivo’s own lyrics graced several of the album’s originals.

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