It'll End in Tears

It'll End in Tears is the first album released by 4AD collective This Mortal Coil, a loose grouping of artists brought together by label boss Ivo Watts-Russell, released on 8 October 1984. The album features many of the artists on the label's roster, including Cocteau Twins, Cindytalk, Dead Can Dance and Colourbox.

Howard Devoto of Magazine sang "Holocaust", one of two covers of songs from Big Star's 1978 album Third/Sister Lovers; the other Big Star cover, album opener "Kangaroo" was released as a single and both helped to re-popularized the then forgotten band. Two key songs were performed by Elizabeth Fraser of the Cocteau Twins, including a cover of Tim Buckley's "Song to the Siren", released as This Mortal Coil's debut single a year before the album.

4AD recorded two further This Mortal Coil albums: Filigree & Shadow (1986) and Blood (1991), although neither were met with the same critical acclaim, sales numbers or cult status.

Conception

The album was intended by 4AD label boss Ivo Watts-Russell as a collection of cover versions of his favourite songs performed by artists on his label. Although conceived as a project by Watts-Russell with the help of the producer John Fryer, Simon Raymonde of the Cocteau Twins took on a far larger and more important role than was initially planned.

This Mortal Coil never played together live, although the Cocteau Twins did perform "Song to the Siren" a number of times in the mid-1980s.

Recording

The album was preceded by the 1983 single "Song to the Siren".

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Simon Raymonde in 1986

It'll End in Tears was recorded in 1984 at Eric Radcliffe's Blackwing Studios in Waterloo, south-east London. Blackwing is located inside a deconsecrated building that was formerly All Hallows Church, and is best known for recording many of the early 1980s Mute Records bands such as Depeche Mode and Yazoo. The location was chosen in part because Fryer had worked there on Depeche Mode's 1981 debut album Speak & Spell, and as a non-musician Watts-Russell was depending on the producer to realise his abstract ideas into actual music.

When called into the studio, the musicians were typically unaware of what tracks they would be interpreting, and were given vague instructions. Raymonde recalls arriving on his first day and being asked to listen to Big Star's 1974 song "Kangaroo" and provide a "minimalist take" with the bass guitar as the main instrument. Similarly with "The Last Wish", Raymonde was given a simple drum pattern and asked to come up with a bass line within around a half an hour. When he did so, Watts-Russell said it sounded good and "let's record it". Soon after Guthrie entered the studio, according to Raymonde "for an hour or so", and recorded his guitar part. However, after the early parts were laid down, the musicians were allowed to add additional layering and instrumentation.

Music and lyrics

Side one

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Alex Chilton c. 2009

The album opens with Kanga Roo, the first of two covers from Big Star's third album "Sister Lovers" (recorded in 1974, released in 1978). In a press release for the 4AD album, Watts-Russell spoke of his admiration for Big Star' singer and songwriter Alex Chilton who by the early 1980s was recovering from a failed career and alcohol and drug addiction. The success of the 4AD project renewed interest in Chilton's music. The track was a long term favourite of Watts-Russell's who described it as "a cross between the Velvet Underground and Syd Barrett on heroin".

The Track was sung by Cinder Sharp of Cindytalk and arranged by Raymonde, who stripped its melody down to a dominant and strummed bass line.

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Elizabeth Fraser in 1986

The album's best known track, "Song to the Siren" is a cover of a 1970 Tim Buckley song and was one of the first of the album's tracks to be recorded. It is sung by Cocteau Twins vocalist Elizabeth Fraser and arranged their lead guitarist and song-writer Robin Guthrie. The Cocteau Twins eventually became unhappy with the track's success, particularly because they were paid a flat rate for the recording, while Guthrie believed he was not given enough credit for his accompanying guitar. The song's popularity lead to tension within the band; Guthrie and Fraiser worried that Raymonde was dedicating too much of time on the record, and that the song's popularity was eclipsing their main band.

"Fond Affections" is a cover of a 1980 song by the short-lived 4AD band Rema-Rema, written by Marco Pirroni (formerly of Adam and the Ants) and Gary Asquith. The dramatic and theatrical original is very different to the TMC cover, which is sung by Fraser to a sparse arrangement by Raymonde.

Side two

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Roy Harper performing in 2001.

Side two opens with a cover of Roy Harper's nostalgic 1970 song "Another Day", and is also sung by Fraser. The origination was described by the critic Peter Beaumont as a "story of a recollected affair in the domestic setting of his past lover's home...prefiguring the idea that whatever happens the time for second chances has long past; that there can be no magic in this encounter." Guthrie was against the song's inclusion as he viewed it as hippie "Progressive rock" sung by a "bearded old man". While the cover lead to renewed interest in Harper's career, the critical consensus is that Fraser's vocals elevated the original, and assessment that Harper agrees with. During this period Fraser was transitioning from her early "Goth" vocal style to the emotive and expansive vocals for which she is best known, and so was experimenting. Watts-Russell claims to have considering editing out some of what he described as "Kate Bush-isms from final track.

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Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard of Dead can Dance, 1989

The tracks "Waves Become Wings" and "Dreams Made Flesh" were written and sung Lisa Gerrard of Dead Can Dance. Watts-Russell had intended for her to provide vocals for a cover, but she disliked the idea and asked if she and fellow band member Brendan Perry could write an original track. Although Watts-Russell was stilled married to the idea that the album would only contain cover versions, he was impressed by their recording, which was eventually split into the songs "Waves Become Wings" and "Dreams Made Flesh".

"Barramundi" was composed and arranged by Raymonde who plays guitars and a Yamaha DX7 synthesizer.

The rhythm parts for the second Gerrard track "Dreams Made Flesh" were provided by Perry.

"Not Me" is a cover of a solo track by Colin Newman of the post-punk band Wire, from his 1980 album A–Z. It is sung by Robbie Grey of Modern English.

The album closes with "A Single Wish", which is built on a piano part by Steven Young of Colourbox, with additional instrumentation and arrangement by Raymonde. Sharp wrote the lyrics and provided vocals which appear after the long instrumental into. The cello sound was achieved by Raymonde's use of a Gizmotron, a mechanical effects device that emulates bowing and has a rapid natural attack. Because the Gizmotron is a particularly difficult device to control, the recording proved very difficult.

Cover art

The cover art features a black and white and out of focus photograph by Nigel Grierson, a member of 4AD's in-house design team 23 Envelope. The image shows the visual artist Yvette (also known as "Pallas Citroen"). Grierson describes the artwork as an attempt to "create an intriguing image, influenced by both the subconscious, and scenes from David Lynch's Eraserhead and Luis Buñuel's "Los Olvidados" - eyes closed, hair pulled back."

Reception

The album was net with universal praise on release.

In 2018, Pitchfork ranked It'll End in Tears at number eight on its list of "The 30 Best Dream Pop Albums".

Writng for The Guardian, the critic Dorian Lynskey listed the group's version of "Song to the Siren" as nr. 7 in their 2006 list of "Covers that are better than the original songs", writing that "by turning Tim Buckley's "Song to the Siren" into a tremulous ambient hymn, This Mortal Coil and Elizabeth Fraser made the original version seem like a mere sketch."

Personnel

• Ivo Watts-Russell – conception, production
• Simon Raymonde – production, arrangements, guitar, bass, synthesizer
• Elizabeth Fraser – vocals
• Robin Guthrie – guitar
• Lisa Gerrard – vocals, yangqin
• Brendan Perry – bass drone
• John Fryer – multi-instruments, production
• Gordon Sharp – vocals
• Robbie Grey – vocals
• Martyn Young – synthesizer, bass, guitar
• Mark Cox – synthesizer
• Steven Young – piano
• Manuela Rickers – guitar
• Martin McCarrick – cello
• Gini Ball – violin, viola
• Howard Devoto – vocals

Charts

Chart (1984–85)	Peak position
New Zealand RIANZ Albums Chart	42
UK Albums Chart	38
UK Independent Albums Chart	1

Singles

• "Song to the Siren" – #66 UK Singles Chart (3 weeks), #3 UK Indie Chart (101 weeks), #8 NZ (15 weeks), #39 NL (4 weeks); released September 1983. "Song to the Siren"'s 101 weeks on the UK Indie Chart was the 4th longest chart run.
• "Kangaroo" – #2 UK Indie Chart (20 weeks); released August 1984.

Sources

• Aston, Martin. Facing the Other Way: The Story of 4AD. London: The Friday Project, 2013. Template:Isbn
• Buckley, Peter. The Rough Guide to Rock. London: Rough Guides, 2003. Template:Isbn
• Oliver, Vaughan; Poynor, Rick. Vaughan Oliver: Visceral Pleasures. London: Booth-Clibborn Editions, 2000. Template:Isbn
• Raymonde, Simon. In One Ear: Cocteau Twins, Ivor Raymonde and Me. London: Nine Eight Books, 2024. Template:Isbn

External links

• Contemporary interview with Ivo Watts-Russell on the album sleeve
• Roy Harper, "Another Day" live, 1972

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