Thursday, January 20, 2011


Various Artists- Lonley Is an Eyesore: 4AD Compilation (1987) MP3 & FLAC


"Have a fish nailed to a cross on my apartment wall. It sings to me with glassy eyes and quotes from Kafka."

In a certain sense, Lonley Is an Eyesore functions as a time-capsule, a snapshot of Post-Punk circa the mid-Eighties, albeit a snapshot saturated with the particular shades and tinctures of the Goth-informed Dream-Pop of the 4AD stable. As a result, there is an aesthetic cohesiveness to this album that is unusual for a compilation, which stems from that fact that, to some extent, 4AD was pushing a particular (Ivo Watts-Russell produced) sound rather than the bands themselves. This approach was taken a step further with the This Mortal Coil releases, in which various 4AD artists were thrown together in the studio (under the control of Watts-Russell) to record cover songs dressed up in 4AD-style gloom. Despite this overriding emphasis on style over substance, Lonely Is an Eyesore holds up quite well 25 years later because it contains an intriguing mix of the influential (Dead Can Dance, Cocteau Twins, Throwing Muses) and the obscure (Dif Juz, The Wolfgang Press, Clan of Xymox), all at the height of their powers. With the exception of the badly dated Colourbox contribution, this album still sounds fresh, dark, and revelatory, even if it is not quite the manifesto it was clearly conceived to be.

Lonely Is an Eyesore
1. Colourbox- Hot Doggie  (2:57)
2. This Mortal Coil- Acid, Bitter and Sad  (5:26)
3. The Wolfgang Press- Cut the Tree  (5:35)
4. Throwing Muses- Fish  (5:28)
5. Dead Can Dance- Frontier  (2:58)
6. Cocteau Twins- Crushed  (3:16)
7. Dif Juz- No Motion  (4:49)
8. Clan of Xymox- Muscoviet Musquito  (4:03)
9. Dead Can Dance- The Protagonist  (8:47)



12 comments:

  1. You had me at aesthetic cohesiveness!

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  2. good little lp this-I've got a rather lovely boxset of this.

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  3. Nice collection, nice treat. Thank you. I'm missing China Crisis. Might you happen to have any China Crisis to offer??

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  4. spaceman73, yes, I've seen that boxset; it's pretty amazing. Thanks for the comment! Keep coming back and please hit the follow button, cheers

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  5. Anonymous, unfortunately I don't have any China Crisis. Have you looked around the torrent sites?

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  6. never mind the bollocks...here's the yarblesJanuary 21, 2011 at 10:26 AM

    Don't have lossless by any of these bands. Grabbed some Sire/Warner comp from 87 the other day out of the dollar bin for shits & giggles. The highlights were Echo & The Bunnymen, The Smiths and Depeche Mode. Love me some Cocteau Twins and saw Throwing Muses open for R.E.M. back in the day. Thanks you for musiks! [:-)

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  7. Hi never mind the bullocks, I have some Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance, Throwing Muses, and Wolfgang Press in the works for posts in the near future. So much stuff to share, so little time. Keep coming back and good to hear from you! cheers

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  8. Scurfie, so "particular shades and tinctures" didn't do it for you? LOL

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  9. Please post (if you can) This Mortal Coil (the both)
    Thx so much
    douxee

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  10. douxee, I'll do my best to post some This Mortal Coil soon. Please click the "follow" button and join the blog, cheers- voixautre

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  11. Probably my favorite song from Wolfgang Press, I never get tired of listening to it. The Difjuz song is petty amazing aswell.

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  12. El Isabelino, I posted a hard to find Dif Juz album as well. It's well worth hearing if you haven't done so already

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