395) Sisters of Mercy - First and Last and Always

In the old days you did a tour in the hope that people would then buy the record as that’s where the money was. With income from streaming this has reversed as touring has now become the main income for a band.

Many bands tour but haven’t released a new record in years, New Order eleven years, Echo and the Bunnymen twelve years, Human League fourteen years, Massive Attack sixteen years. Sisters of Mercy laugh at these bands releasing such recent music as they have not released anything since their third record twenty-six years ago.

I have no idea if the above bands have simply decided that they will just tour, or they can no longer be bothered writing and recording a new record or if the creative art of writing a song is no longer there but what we do know is that’s not the case with The Sisters of Mercy.

Andrew Eldritch formed the band in 1980, he is the one constant, by 1990 there had been three Sisters of Mercy records and then he fell out with his record company and that was that. They still tour to this day, but their live set is peppered with new material alongside the classics, Eldritch has never seemed too keen to return to the studio although reading the internet for this review I did read, they were recording so maybe, but don’t hold your breath.

Back in 1985 Eldritch alongside future Mission men Wayne Hussey and Craig Adams with Gary Marx and drum machine Doctor Avalanche released their debut album First and Last and Always which made the UK top twenty.

Black Planet opens the record a piano note is hit and then the band arrive, Eldritch vocal is effective, dramatic and is a commanding presence and there is a riff just below the surface that carries the song.

They have tried to shake off the goth tag which they are never going to do but lets give them credit for also producing catchy songs Walk Away, when Eldritch’s raises his vocal at the end off the chorus and No Time to Cry engages from the start with Hussey swirling his guitar rhythms as he would do in The Mission and the chorus with the “no, no, no” refrain lodges in the brain.

Marian is slowed down and the vocal was distracting but has slowly grown on me with the light touch of the music meaning Eldritch can’t go for the bombastic approach but uses his vocal to blend into the song. A grower. The title track the opening reminds me of Iron Maiden when they are preparing one of Steve Harris seventeen-minute songs but by the time the chorus kicks in I’m on it.

Amphetamine Logic the guitars of Marx and Hussey slash over a solid bass from Adams as Eldritch becomes more manic, it does not let up and is more the better for it.

They close with the seven-minute plus of Some Kind of Stranger dramatic and I would imagine excellent live as the song is allowed to breath and each element, vocals, guitar, bass, and Doctor Avalanche are allowed their moment.

We all know it fell apart quick and only Eldritch would return on their second album, these four men should be extremely proud of this one record they made together.

Who knows maybe Andrew Eldritch will surprise us all and we will one day have a fourth Sisters of Mercy record.

8/10

GIVE IT A STREAM: No Time to Cry