Alternative Weekend: Focus on ‘The Sisters of Mercy'

I have been posting most weekends using @detlev’s #metalweekend tag, but my main love of music is progressive and alternative music. Some of my posts have included these songs, but I feel they are not keeping with the spirit of metal.

I will continue to post article’s using #metalweekend occasionally but feel I have more to offer regarding these other genres that I am more familiar with.

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Introducing #alternativeweekend. Post an article that highlights THREE great songs that are either progressive or alternative and use the tag #alternativeweekend or use the ‘Focus on’ series if you like. There are no rules, just make your own!

If you have a short story or something to offer regarding an opinion on your songs, then share it with us!

Goth music, does it still exist? In the 80’s it was prevalent and bands such as The Mission, Jesus and Mary Chain and The Sisters of Mercy were in the public eye.

I couldn’t get to grips with the Jesus and Mary Chain, The Mission I was a fan of and The Sisters of Mercy were just a bit too weird for me.

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If you looked at me during this time I was quite normal. I didn’t have dyed black hair, black clothes, black finger polish, black shades or a big wide black hat either. You could be a closet Goth if you chose to be.

Much later and while working at CapGemini in 2008 one of the blokes suggested I listen to the Sisters of Mercy, ‘First and Last and Always’ debut album. I did and it hit me right away.

The Mission was the band that I listened to most, but I’m writing about Wayne Husseys’ previous band, the ‘ill-fated ones’.

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I say ‘Ill-fated’, in the sense that the same thing happened to King Crimson with their ‘Court’ album. One album and many key members left.

Andrew Eldritch was and still is the key voice of the band and what a voice it is. Have you heard anything like it before? These ‘voices’ seem to come from the 80’, strange, exaggerated and unorthodox.

Floodland and its singles, "This Corrosion" and "Dominion” just didn’t hit my spot so I will be using songs only from their debut.

The Sisters of Mercy – Black Planet (First and Last and Always – 1985)

It’s a Black Planet and a Black World, and here they are in an open top car with all the black gear on!

Honestly Goth had me laughing at time and still does to this day. The music however is driving (no pun), solid and compelling.

Black Planet was released as a single but I can’t remember it, even though these guys did hit the lower reaches of the top 40 regularly.

The Sisters of Mercy – Marian (First and Last and Always – 1985)

This image of shrouded hidden mystery always seemed to follow the Sisters of Mercy. Black hats and black shades were the normal and now you can listen to one of the deepest of voices ever heard only matched by Lee Marvin’s, ‘Wand'rin' Star’ or Yello's 'Oh Yeah'.

If I wake up with a cold virus in the morning then I may have a chance of being able to sing Marian at the same octave level as Mr Eldritch. Listen for the verse sang in German!

The Sisters of Mercy – Some Kind of Stranger (First and Last and Always – 1985)

When listening to music which has a strange vocal I often focus on the music. The final song on ‘and Last and Always’ has a great buzzing guitar riff all the way through and just gets better the closer you get to the end of the song.

This ‘Love Song’ is my favourite song from the album by far, especially the last two minutes.

I’m sure its Wayne Hussey playing that guitar and what he did next with The Mission never quite matched this one in my opinion.

Despite my outlook on Goth music as ‘amusing’, it’s just the concept of everything being most definitely BLACK that causes me to smirk a little.

The thought of sunburn and anything but the whitest of skin appeared to be another big no no!

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The music generally is great if you can get used to that weird wobbly voice. There’s no doubt it is depressing as hell but that’s OK, its just the way I like it!

Other articles in the ‘Focus on’ series:

Focus on ‘The Sundays' // Focus on ‘Muse'
Focus on ‘Nirvana' // Focus on ‘Anathema'
Focus on ‘Genesis’ - The Collins Years Part One // Focus on ‘Genesis’ - The Collins Years Part Two
Focus on ‘Genesis’ - The Gabriel Years // Focus on ‘The Pixies’
Focus on ‘Sonic Youth’ // Focus on ‘Talking Heads’
Focus on ‘Blackfield’ // Focus on ‘Karnivool’
Focus on 'Tears for Fears' // Focus on 'The Cranberries'
Focus on 'Kate Bush' // Focus on 'The Smiths'
Focus on 'Radiohead' // Focus on 'Rush'

Guitar Image courtesy of http://www.freestockphotos.biz/stockphoto/16642

If you found this article so invigorating that you are now a positively googly-eyed, drooling lunatic with dripping saliva or even if you liked it just a bit, then please upvote, comment, resteem, engage me or all of these things.