Back Again - The Sisters Of Mercy

WIDE RECEIVER
KNOCKING ON HEAVEN´S DOOR
FIRST AND LAST AND ALWAYS

THE SISTERS OF MERCY - Wide Receiver (CD)

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A bootleg recordíng, what a surprise!

This CD contains a couple of unreleased tracks, instrumental versions, demos and live tracks. The sound quality is partly very poor, but some tracks are necessary for all SISTERS addicts, like "Wide Receiver", a version of "Fix" sung by Craig Adams, a demo of "Red Skies Disappear" (here entitled "Marian" demo 1985), an early version of "Garden Of Delight" (later a Mission classic) and "Poison Door" (actually not by the SISTERS, but by Ghost Dance with Anne Marie on vocals). The other demo and instrumental tracks are nice, but not too important. Well, simply another of the millions of SISTERS OF MERCY bootlegs. (Alexander Pohle)

THE SISTERS OF MERCY - Knocking On Heaven´s Door (CD)

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Another Live Bootleg of the SISTERS. Place and date of the gig are not mentioned on the cover, but it is from the 1985 tour. The sound is okay and the songs are the usual for this time, "First And Last And Always", "Body And Soul", "Alice", "Floorshow", "Marian" and a few more. Typical SISTERS Boot.

THE SISTERS OF MERCY - First And Last And Always (CD)

(Wea)

Do I "carry owls to Athens", if I say, that this first album of the SISTERS is one of the most important and influential album of the whole Gothic-Rock movement? This album is simply a classic, every song is brilliant, even if you listen to the more poppy ones like the singles "No Time To Cry" and "Walk Away", the rocky "First And Last And Always" and "A Rock And A Hard Place" , the dark "Black Planet" and "Possession" or the hymns "Some Kind Of Stranger" and "Marian". Especially "Marian" is one o the best-known and also best songs of the SISTERS. I fell in love with it when I heard it the first time many years ago and "Marian" was on of the few songs, that infected me with the Gothic-scene (beside "She sells sanctuary" of The Cult and "Icon" by Siouxsie).

To name all the songs on this album, I also have to mention "Nine While Nine" and "Logic" (later known live as "Amphetamine Logic"), which are both very typical SISTERS songs, really good ones, I would say.

"First And Last And Always" is one of the very few real classics of the Gothic-Rock genre and simply the absolute climax of THE SISTERS OF MERCY. They (that means Eldritch) never reached such impressive quality again, even, if the following "Floodland" album was really good. (Alexander Pohle)