This Mortal Coil’s It’ll End in Tears was released on October 1st, 1984 by 4AD records. This Mortal Coil was an all star collaborative project, rather than a band, curated by label boss Ivo Watts-Russell and was produced by the legendary John Fryer (who produced many artists from the early Goth/Industrial scene ).
The album featured guest musicians and vocalists such as: Elizabeth Fraser, Robin Guthrie, and Simon Raymonde of Cocteau Twins. Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry of Dead Can Dance, Gordon Sharp of Cindytalk, Martyn and Steve Young of Colourbox, Mark Cox of Wolfgang Press, Manuela Rickers of X-Mal Deutschland, Martin McCarrick and Gini Ball (Siouxsie and The Banshees) Robbie Grey from Modern English, and Howard Devoto of Magazine, Howard Devoto, sang “Holocaust”, which was one of two covers of songs from the Third/Sister Lovers album by Big Star. The other Alex Chilton track, was album opener “Kangaroo” sung by Gordon Sharp, and was released as a single to promote the album along with a video.
Two songs were performed by Elizabeth Fraser of the Cocteau Twins, including Tim Buckley’s haunting “Song to the Siren”, which oddly would foreshadow her later relationship with his son, Jeff Buckley. Fraser also performed “Another Day” by Roy Harper. Not all of the song covers were 60’s and 70’s classics, however, as the song “Fond Affections”, sung by Sharp, was a cover of a Rema Rema track, and “Not me”, sung by Robbie Grey, was originally a track by Colin Newman of Wire.
Director David Lynch tried to license the This Mortal Coil version of Song to the Siren for his film Blue Velvet, but instead emulated the feel of the project with Angelo Badalamenti, which led to the development of the music for the television series Twin Peaks. Read more about that here…
This Mortal Coil would go on to release 2 more albums Filigree and Shadow, and Blood, with only Fryer and Ivo as constant members. The pair would then would release 2 more records under the guise of The Hope Blister, which was ultimately the swan song for classic era 4AD.
Check out things coming full circle with this interesting cover of Slowdive’s “Dagger” below:
