Description

Personnel: Ivo, John Fryer (various instruments); Gini Ball (violin, viola); Martin McGarrick (cello).
Additional guest artists: Howard Devoto, Robbie Grey (vocals); Manuela Rickers (guitar); Brendan Perry (bass, drums).
Recorded at Blackwing Studios, London, England.
The UK-based 4AD label was responsible for some of the 1980s’ most cutting edge alternative music. This Mortal Coil is something of a label pet project, an ever-shifting, collaborative outfit that includes members of such 4AD bands as the Cocteau Twins, Modern English, Dead Can Dance, Color Box and Wolfgang Press. True to the label’s aesthetic, the music of This Mortal Coil is ethereal, abstract, dreamlike and sometimes spooky.
Most of the outfit’s records focused primarily on covers of songs by seminal alternative rock artists, and IT’LL END IN TEARS is no exception. Included here are Tim Buckley’s “Song to the Siren,” sung by Cocteau Twins’ Elizabeth Fraser, Alex Chilton’s “Holocaust,” sung by Howard Devoto, and a startlingly poppy rendition of Wire’s “Not Me.” The track list is also sprinkled with originals, most notably the work of Lisa Gerard and Brendan Perry of Dead Can Dance on cinematic tracks such as “Dreams Made Flesh.” Alternately mesmerizing, disconcerting, and charming, the debut effort from these talented label mates is well worth the attention of 4AD fans.