This Mortal Coil – A History of Dubious Taste

Late Night Stargazing

I’ve always loved this song by This Mortal Coil, mostly, admittedly, because of the lead vocal provided by Kim Deal.

I always felt her voice was criminally under-used during her time with the Pixies, where she was mostly consigned to backing vocal duties. I can only think of two songs where she was permitted to sing the lead part: the gloriously filthy quietLOUDquiet Gigantic, and Into the White, B-side to Here Comes Your Man, both of which would easily sit in my Top 5 Pixies tracks.

But This Mortal Coil do not make the same mistake, putting her right out front on You and Your Sister:

This Mortal Coil – You and Your Sister

The first time I ever acquired a copy of that record was on a 4AD sampler stuck to the front of some magazine or other. It was when I was working at Boots the Chemist in Cardiff, and I remember returning to the staff “restaurant”, clutching the WH Smith’s bag it was contained in, and being asked by someone at the same table as me why I looked so pleased, at which point I produced the magazine and CD from the bag, to the noise of total disinterest and non-plussedness.

I was reminded of this tune recently because this lady:

…who I refuse to accept is 63 years old, has included a rather fine cover version of the tune on her current album, Bright Lights:

Susanna Hoffs – You and Your Sister

Take your pick, both versions are fecking gorgeous.

More soon.

Late Night Stargazing

This Mortal Coil were a collective of artists primarily attached to the 4AD label, brought together by label head honcho Ivo Watts-Russell was boss and president at the time.

This, from the 4AD website:

“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.”

Nowhere was this freedom more apparent than this, from 1991’s “Blood” album, featuring the gorgeous tones of Tanya Donnelly and Kim Deal, both of whom I always thought were criminally under-used as lead vocalists in Throwing Muses and Pixies respectively:

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