THIS MORTAL COIL - SONG TO THE SIREN

SONG TO THE SIREN

THIS MORTAL COIL

SONGWRITERS: LARRY BECKETT & TIM BUCKLEY

COUNTRY: U. K.

ALBUM: IT’LL END IN TEARS

LABEL: 4AD

GENRE: GOTHIC ROCK

YEAR: 1984

This Mortal Coil was a music collective led by Ivo Watts-Russell, founder of the British record label 4AD. Although Watts-Russell and John Fryer were technically the only two official members, the band's recorded output featured a large rotating cast of supporting artists, many of whom were otherwise associated with 4AD, including members of Cocteau Twins, Colourbox, and Dead Can Dance. The project became known for its gothic, dream pop sound, and released three full albums beginning in 1984 with It'll End in Tears.

It'll End in Tears is the first album released by 4AD collective This Mortal Coil, an umbrella title for a loose grouping of guest musicians and vocalists brought together by label boss Ivo Watts-Russell. The album was released on 1 October 1984, and reached #38 on the UK Albums Chart. It features many of the artists on the 4AD roster at the time, including Cocteau Twins, Colourbox, and Dead Can Dance; as well as key post-punk figure Howard Devoto, who sang "Holocaust", one of two covers of songs from the Third/Sister Lovers album by Big Star. The other Alex Chilton-penned track, album opener "Kangaroo", was released as a single to promote the album. Two key songs were performed by Elizabeth Fraser of Cocteau Twins, including Tim Buckley's "Song to the Siren", which reached #66 on the UK Charts when released as This Mortal Coil's debut single a year before the album. The song remained on the UK Indie Chart for almost two years. Fraser also performed on "Another Day" by Roy Harper. 4AD would go on to release two further albums under the name of This Mortal Coil: Filigree & Shadow (1986) and Blood(1991).

Valentino Records, a sublabel of Atco Records, released the album in the United States in late 1984, the only time a This Mortal Coil album was released simultaneously in the UK and the US. All three This Mortal Coil albums were later re-released in the US in 1993 on 4AD/Warner Brothers, and in 1998 solely on 4AD. A remastered and repackaged CD edition of It'll End in Tears was issued with the complete This Mortal Coil recordings in a self-titled box set, released in late November 2011. The CD was released individually shortly thereafter. 

On the floating, shapeless oceans

I did all my best to smile

til your singing eyes and fingers

drew me loving into your eyes.

And you sang "Sail to me, sail to me;

Let me enfold you."

Here I am, here I am waiting to hold you.

Did I dream you dreamed about me?

Were you here when I was full sail?

Now my foolish boat is leaning, broken love lost on

your rocks.

For you sang, "Touch me not, touch me not, come back tomorrow."

Oh my heart, oh my heart shies from the sorrow.

I'm as puzzled as a newborn child.

I'm as riddled as the tide.

Should I stand amid the breakers?

Or shall I lie with death my bride?

Hear me sing: "Swim to me, swim to me, let me enfold you."

"Here I am. Here I am, waiting to hold you."