Short description
The Sisters Of Mercy's debut, 1985's FIRST AND LAST AND ALWAYS, is the definitive goth record. Combining the filtered punk-inspired angst and fury of Bauhaus, a machine-honed brittleness, and the literate dourness of artists like Leonard Cohen (whose songs are referenced in both the Sisters' lyrics and by their name), it's an amazingly solid album.
Highlights include "Marian (Version)" and "Some Kind of Stranger"; on the first, Andrew Eldritch's vocals (about half of which are in German) are felt rather than heard, an effect accentuated by crystalline guitar notes. The latter song is arguably the most spectacularly gloomy song that the goth movement ever produced--nearly seven and a half minutes of soaring keyboards, morose, tortured vocals, and aching, brittle guitars. Fans might wish to note the album's 1992 remastering cleans up the sound quality significantly, but whichever version you hear, this album is an extraordinary document.
Review
Q - Included in Q Magazine's 'Best Gothic Albums Of All Time' - "...their tombstone....This mordant beast survives as a mission statement...for the genre: pitch-black, rock-hard, utterly oppressive, shrouded in bollocks. Black! Black!"
Q - 3 stars out of 5 -- "FIRST AND LAST AND ALWAYS helped crystallise goth and remains the purist's album choice."
Q (12/99, p.171) - Included in Q Magazine's 'Best Gothic Albums Of All Time' - "...their tombstone....This mordant beast survives as a mission statement...for the genre: pitch-black, rock-hard, utterly oppressive, shrouded in bollocks. Black! Black!"