In about 2000 a new lady joined the office I worked in, she was incredibly quiet and shy, nothing wrong with that, she was pleasant enough and not everyone has to chat away.
She was always in before me but one day I was sitting at my desk, and she came in with headphones on and I asked her what she was listening to, and she said The Smiths. Now we all know I am shallow regarding music if she had said Bros, I would have never asked her about music again but each morning I could now ask her what she was listening to. One day she said This Mortal Coil and it was clear from my reaction I had never bloody heard of them.
As she left that night, she handed me the CD and said give it a listen see what you think. The record was It’ll End in Tears and I loved it and told her a few days later and the next day she appeared with Filigree & Shadow and Blood to complete my education. From then on, we swapped many a CD until one day it was announced she had quit and moved to England, I’m sure she could have introduced me too so much more. Wherever you are now Catherine thanks for the music.
Blood was the last record released under the collective that was This Mortal Coil the brainchild of Ivo Watts-Russell founder of 4AD. Over the twenty-one tracks we have a mixture of gorgeous instrumentals, original tracks and , as ever, inspired cover versions.
The late Caroline Crawley of Shelleyan Orphan is drafted in and owns the cover of Mr Somewhere and Syd Barrett’s Late Night (she is almost acapella). A beautiful voice. However, the masterpiece is Kim Deal and Tanya Donelly with their vulnerable vocals on You and Your Sister, uniquely beautiful.
Several Times has an eerie church organ and a sweet atmospheric vocal and Crawley is back for Help Me Lift You Up which is simple but effective.
We don’t need all the tracks, Lacemaker II, Baby Ray Baby and Ruddy and Wretched could have been cut but any record that can produce something as magnificent as I Am the Cosmos on track twenty shows the imagination and talent on display here.
A record that you need to come back to again and again.
7/10
GIVE IT A STREAM: You and Your Sister
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