First off, background: TMC is the baby of producer Ivo, main man at 4AD records, which has released a lot of great music from a lot of great musicians: we're talking Pixies, Breeders, Throwing Muses, Dead Can Dance, Cocteau Twins, Wolfgang Press, Colourbox (aka M/A/R/R/S - of Pump up the Volume fame), etc. This is not a tiny indie label that is built around one decent artist; 4AD rocks.

TMC is Ivo reigning in various 4AD artists and using them in (sadly only three) albums of uncategorizable, moody music. Most TMC tracks will involve stringed instruments, ambient electronic, piano, diverse percussion, the occasional bass, guitar, choir, and then a ton of sumptuous vocals, almost always female. The first two albums ("It'll End in Tears" and "Filigree and Shadow") feature 4AD artists more consistently; "Blood" is largely a tighter group of instrumental musicians, with vocalists being: predominantly Deirdre Rutkowski; then Caroline Crawley; and then a couple by Alison Limerick, and the excellent "You and Your Sister" with Kim Deal (Pixies/Breeders) and Tanya Donnelly (Throwing Muses/Breeders/Belly).

As for the first two albums: the first (IEIT) was a single LP, and like the next (F&S) was more varied in direction throughout the songs. F&S and Blood are 2xLP, full-length CDs, yet Blood is far more consistent in mood, and flows beautifully. I should mention also, that these two albums feature a decent amount of instrumental material, which at their worst are decent segues between songs, and at their best, sound as if they're soundtrack material for a very moving or otherwise excellent film. Both these latter two albums are continuously mixed. But Blood is by far the most consistent effort in terms of maintaining a mood, and in the worthiness of the individual songs. There is not one track here I would skip.

For those wondering if this is a "goth" album; no, it isn't, but it IS melancholy, and that's why a copy of this album is on most Goths' shelves, as they're the pretentious and melancholy representatives in the grand scheme of scenes, cliques, sub-cultures, and stereotypes. But TMC is rarely pretentious; it's very heartfelt, and this album in particular will likely stick out in your collection for years. I first heard it in... 1989? and still listen to it as often as just about anything (and I have a TON of CDs). And in my list of masterpieces - albums which I think of as flawless - it was the first one that came to mind. I'm a very eclectic listener, and this disc is a beautiful representative of an aspect of myself, my musical interests, and my emotions.

End note: old Pink Floyd/Syd Barrett fans might want to take note of the cover of Barrett's "Late Night." Barrett's original recording is marred by his dysfunctionality; here, it's a total work of art.


IMMORTAL MAGIC   June 28, 2000
Pieter (Johannesburg)
16 out of 16 found this review helpful

Blood includes the talents of Alison Limerick, Kim Deal, Tanya Donelly and Heidi Berry. Haunting voices drift across ethereal soundscapes in a harmonious blend of their own material and songs by legends like Gene Clark and David Crosby, among others. Strange things happen as the meandering music carries one eastward to bliss in isles of orchids and westward to wonder in the isles of the blessed. They equal one of their most beautiful interpretations, Tim Buckley's Song To The Siren (from 1986's Filigree And Shadow) on their version of Mary Margaret O'Hara's Help Me Lift You Up, in a quivering, atmospherical treatment. An uncompromisingly poetic collection where the lyrics and music have been meticulously crafted to paint the most vivid moodscapes in pieces like With Tomorrow, The Lacemaker, the sorrowful I Come And Stand At Every Door and Late Night, a sweet interpretation of the Syd Barrett song. A glorious epitaph to an idea that produced some of the most magical music of the late 80s/early 90s.


you know what we never did . . .we never danced   September 10, 2004
Thomas Dean Nordlum (Montreal)
9 out of 9 found this review helpful

I got blood some months back, after falling in love with It'll End In Tears years ago, then discovering Filigree and Shadow and finding the beauty in that maze of lushness. Blood is no exception, it's the most different of the three This Mortal Coil records, much more consistent in mood and much more drenched with strings. But this record takes you on a journey to another place, to places so beautiful, the tracks on this record blend so wonderfully and are so perfect. Those strings on "the lacemaker" grab me each time. When you get to "you and your sister" it blends so well into "nature's way" and those strings and that voice . . .the comes "i come and stand at every door" one of the best tracks, sung by the ghost of a child from Hiroshima (Hiroshima Mon Amour). Then another amazing track "bitter" that goes on with it's dramatic stings. "help me lift you up" is stunning beyond stunning. I adore "til i gain control again" and "dreams are like water" which is such a perfect ending to three perfect records. I wish that there would be another This Mortal Coil record, but these are so precious, it seems that they can almost be enough. Yes, there is no "song to the siren" on Blood, but what Blood does offer is stunning, inovative, dreamy, and unique music. It will take you away, let it take you away. . .This Mortal Coil (sixteen days without sun, gathering dust the band played on again)


Dreams are like water   November 14, 2003
Erica Anderson (Minneapolis, MN)
7 out of 8 found this review helpful

Next to "Twice Upon a Time" by Siouxsie & the Banshees, This Mortal Coil's "Blood" album is one of my first goth albums I have ever bought without realizing it. I haven't listened to "Blood" in a long time. I almost forgot just how enchanting that this album is. I can't really compare this album to any other TMC cds because this is the only cd I own by This Mortal Coil. Unlike some reviewers, I do enjoy this album immensely. It is very dark and foreboding. Ideal music to listen to on a cold, rainy day (or in my case, a cold winter day). I like how there are different vocalists for every song and there are some special guest vocalists from well known sings like The Breeders' Kim Deal ex-Belly/Breeder singer Tonya Donnelly on "You and Your Sister". Since TCM was on the label 4AD label, there is that familiar 4AD sound ala The Cocteau Twins and Lush, ethereal, lush melodies with delicate female vocals. "Blood" is truly a beautiful and underappreciated album.


Rare and subtle   July 9, 2006
Laurence Upton (Wilts, UK)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

Although the music of the eighties is best remembered for its over-produced bombast, beneath the mainstream was a diversity and creativity that should be envied by purveyors of today's roster. Four A.D. had a reputation for quality and distinction, and its founder Ivo Watts-Russell's project, This Mortal Coil, brought together some of the brightest talents from the label for their 45-minute debut album in 1984, It'll End In Tears. This collected new versions of a number of hand-picked songs, all beautifully performed and sung, and each linked by some newly-created instrumental passages. It was sufficiently successful for a follow-up, Filigree And Shadow, to be made two years later, promoted to double-album length.
In 1991, after a five year gap, came a second double album, Blood. Although the concept of This Mortal Coil remained the same after It'll End In Tears, the move to the double album format had the effect of extending the original instrumental material that interspersed the songs that were being reinterpreted. In my view, although they serve a valuable purpose in bridging and connecting themes and sounds, as full-length tracks some of them are more valuable as a source of revenue to Ivo, Simon Raymonde and John Fryer than as a necessary part of the artistic integrity of the record, and at worst have a bloating effect that can diminish the total effect of the music. There are also some newly composed songs, however, that are more successful.
The choice of artists drafted in for the project and of the songs chosen to be covered on Blood remains outstanding, and is proof of the taste and discrimination for which the project had earned a reputation, whilst the instrumentation, in particular the gorgeous use of chamber strings, is first class.
Caroline Crawley (from the underrated Shelleyan Orphan, on loan from Rough Trade) sounds sublime on the Apartment's Mr Somewhere, Mary Margaret O'Hara's Help Me Lift You Up, where she is joined by Deirdre Rutkowski, and on a radical reworking of Syd Barrett's Late Night, one of my favourites from the set. Deirdre Rutkowski gets solo dibs on the Gene Clark song With Tomorrow, and Carolyn's Song, originally by Rain Parade, as well as on some of the new material. Four A.D. had some major American names on the payroll, as well as their English and Scottish artists, and Heidi Berry revives 'Til I Gain Control Again, written by Rodney Crowell for Emmylou Harris, while Tanya Donelly and Kim Deal are gloriously combined on the popular Big Star song You And Your Sister, later done to advantage by Whale. Dominic Appleton (from Breathless) covers another Chris Bell song, I Am The Cosmos. Spirit's Nature's Way, from Twelve Dreams Of Dr Sardonicus, is given to Alison Limerick, who had first appeared with them on Lonely Is An Eyesore in 1987, and adds vocal support to other tracks.
I Come And Stand At Every Door is an interesting setting of a twentieth century Turkish anti-war poem written by Nazim Hikmet. The Byrds adapted it from a version by Pete Seeger, who had borrowed for it the tune Great Selchie Of Shule Skerry, and around the same time the Misunderstood recorded another setting of the poem, with the title I Unseen. More recently it was taken up by the Fall, who also did an instrumental version on their album Levitate with the title Jap Kid. This Mortal Coil's rendition is sung by Louise & Deirdre Rutkowski and Tim Freeman, and segues evocatively into the moving piece Bitter, with additional vocals by Ikuko Kozu.
Perhaps slightly too much to take at a single 77 minute sitting (bearing in mind it was designed to be played on two records), and slightly padded, this is nonetheless a rare and subtle pleasure