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)

MU: Lossy (MP3@320)

MU: Lossless (FLAC)