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Rating: "First And Last And Always", what to say about this Album if not... turbulent, unsettling, gloomy, infernal, black.
Andrew Eldritch in the '80s, in the melting pot with The Cure, Siouxsie and The Banshees, Joy Division, and Bauhaus, etc., etc., managed, through ups and downs, to temporarily stabilize the band with Wayne Hussey, Gary Marx (future Mission), and Craig Adams, and to give their best with the release of the Album, "First And Last And Always". Their unmistakable style, Eldritch's deep catacombal voice creates an atmosphere of haunting and ghostly movement, yet clean and charged with "intention" as if it were a celebration of black masses. A succession of compelling rhythms heightens this mystery with danceability. "Black Planet" hypnotizes with the perfect sound of dark-punk. As it happens for many other singers, it reflects their personality and has been defined as the masterpiece of dark rock, as for the track "Marian", a song that describes hell, and that magnetized attraction towards the fiery bottom culminating in a light of reconciliation with good. "Possession" is a description of a ritual, slow and continuous. In "Walk Away" there is a more evident emphasis on paranoid beats. "A Rock And A Hard Place" starts off strangely more technological and existential but inevitably ends with heaviness and oppression. "Logic" goes beyond their parameters; there are screams, shrieks, and mad rushes that shattered explosively. Listening to this album, and the amazing "First And Last and Always" means letting yourself go in a tempestuous and mysterious outburst of perverse horror, physical and danced... not to be missed.
An Album that, seemingly without limits, has given a figure to the "Sisters of Mercy" as ambiguous ambassadors of the dark side on a course toward the afterlife. But above all, they also left their mark on the '80s.
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
01 Black Planet (04:41)
(In the western sky)
(My kingdom come)
So still so dark all over Europe
And I ride down the highway 101
By the side of the ocean headed for sunset
For the kingdom come
for the
CHORUS
Black
Black planet
Black
Black world
[repeat]
Run around in the radiation
Run around in the acid rain
On a
Black
Black planet
Black planet hanging over the highway
Out of my mind's eye
Out of the memory
Black world out of my mind
Still so dark all over Europe
And the rainbow rises here
In the western sky
The kill to show for
At the end of the great white pier
I see a
CHORUS
Run around in the radiation
Tune in turn on burn out in the acid rain on a..
CHORUS [repeat to fade]
02 Walk Away (03:26)
And in the summer when the clouds show through
I might go the same way too if
You and I could talk together
Well what am I supposed to do with
You and I would walk together
Then with always close around and
Now you gaze toward the doorway
When the weather comes falling down
CHORUS
And when the rain comes down
Would you choose to walk or stay
Would you choose to walk
Would you choose to stay
Would you
Walk walk walk walk walk away
(away) (away) away away (away) away
away away walk away
Would you choose to walk away
And when the rain comes down
Would you choose to walk or stay
Would you choose to walk
Would you choose to stay
Would you
Walk walk walk walk walk away
Though when the day is nearly
Through I might see the same way too if
You would name the things
That bring you down on me so I could say it's
Not quite true if you don't really
Know or understand the circumstance
Behind then I might clear your
Mind and you won't have to go so
CHORUS
03 No Time to Cry (03:59)
It's just a feeling
I get sometimes
A feeling
Sometimes
And I get frightened
Just like you
I get frightened too
but it's...
CHORUS
(no no no) No time for heartache
(no no no) No time to run and hide
(no no no) No time for breaking down
(no no no) No time to cry
Sometimes in the world as is you've
Got to shake the hand that feeds you
It's just like Adam says
It's not so hard to understand
It's just like always coming down on
Just like Jesus never came and
What did you expect to find
It's just like always here again it's...
CHORUS
Everything will be alright
Everything will turn out fine
Some nights I still can't sleep
And the voices pass with time
And I keep
[repeat]
No time for tears
No time to run and hide
No time to be afraid of fear
I keep no time to cry
CHORUS
06 First and Last and Always (04:14)
See a body and the dream of the dead days
Following lost and blind
Living, far from here
Tomorrow is hard to find
And it seems like twenty-five years of
Promises and give me more
Scenes of a hand me down in
Dresses heard before
First and last and always: 'til the end of time
First and last and always: Mine
Maybe it's not so easy
Maybe it's a way too long
Say, say you'll be by me
When the evidence comes along
(My calling)
(My time)
See a body and the dream of the dead days
A following lost and blind
Cross my heart with silver
Here's the key behind
Seems like twenty-five years of
Ever after, ever more more more
Seems I wore this face for you
Far too long before
First and last and always: My calling, my time
First and last and always: Mine
First and last and always: 'til the end of the end of time
First and last and always: Mine
First and last and always: 'til the end of time
First and last and always: Mine
07 Possession (04:38)
Carrion child,
Prey for me,play your
Wild card, see the house come down around your
Head, home to me, so much dreaming
Some say I'm growing cold and
Taking over
Nothing, cuts, two ways.....
Possession: taking over
Stand these pictures on your shelf
And wear your heart upon my sleeve,
Wear a dress that you can see through,
See yourself inside;
I'll be your imagination,
Tear apart what you believe,
Make a mess of your conviction,
Take away my pride and leave,
Nothing, but the debris,
Cuts, two ways,
Carrion child,
Prey for me, play your
Wild card, see the house come down around your
Possession: taking over.....
Possession: shake shake shake shake shake shake;
Possession: taking over.....
Somehow the fact takes over, and the fiction coming through,
Somehow I do my crying breaking down for you,
This way doubt takes over, contradiction coming through,
This way I do my lying, making up and making out for you.....
Possession: taking over
Child (nothing)
Prey for me (but the debris)
Play your wild card (cuts two ways)
Some say I'm growing cold and
Taking over.....Down around your
Head (nothing)
Home to me (but the debris)
So much dreaming, see the house come down around your
Possession: shake shake shake shake shake shake shake
Possession: taking over.....
Possession: shake shake shake shake shake shake shake
Possession: taking hold
08 Nine While Nine (04:11)
And it's passing strange
And I'm waiting for the train
Caught up on this line again
And it's passing slowly
Killing time but it's
Better than living in what will come and I've
Still got some of your letters with me and I
Thought sometimes or I read too much
And I think you know let's
Drink to the dead lying under the water and the
Cost of the blood on the driven snow and the
Lipstick on my cigarettes
Frost upon the window pane
Nine while nine and I'm waiting
For the train.....
She said do you remember a time when angels
Do you remember a time when fear
In the days when I was stronger
In the days when you were here she said
When days had no beginning
While days had no end when
Shadows grew no longer I
Knew no other friend but you
Were wild
You were wild.....
Frost upon these cigarettes
Lipstick on the window pane and I've
Lost all sense of the world outside but I
Can't forget so I call your name and I'm
Looking for a life for me and I'm
Looking for a life for you and I'm
Talking to myself again and it's
So damn cold it's just not true and I'm
Walking through the rain
Trying to hold on waiting for the train and I'm
Only looking for what you want but it's
Lonely here and I think you knew and I'm
And I'm waiting
And I wait in vain
Nine while nine and I'm waiting
For the train..... [repeat last verse x2]
09 Amphetamine Logic (04:49)
Watch them do
The falling over
Watch them do
The standing still
Nothing but the knife to live for
One life, all I need
Give me one good reason
Give me more S....
(Women)
And the women come and go
(Talk)
Talking about me like they know
(Men)
Bought and sold
And the world keeps turning
People cold
And people burning
Nothing but the knife to live for
One life, all I need
Give me one good reason
Give me more S....
Nothing but the knife to live for
One life, all I need
Give me one good reason
Give me more S.... (Amphetamine Logic)
Hit up
Steel in hand
Lit up
Like candles
Burning
Like Catherine wheels
Turning
On
Nothing but the knife to live for
One life, all I need
Give me one good reason
Give me more S.... (Amphetmine Logic)
10 Some Kind of Stranger (07:16)
And yes I believe in what we had
But words got in the way
And only yesterday
As I was leaving
Lord knows I've tried to say but I've
Heard a million conversations
Going where they've been before
Seen the way that careful lingers
Undecided at the door
CHORUS
And all I know for sure
All I know for real
Is knowing doesn't mean so much
When placed against the feeling
The heat inside
When bodies meet
When fingers touch
All my words are secondhand and
Useless in the face of this
Rationale and rhyme and reason
Pale beside a single kiss
And I've heard so many things I
Fail to understand at all
I'd settle anytime for
Unknown footsteps in the hall outside
CHORUS
Because the world is cruel and
Promises are broken
Don't try to tell me
Anything don't try to tell me
You'll be true to me you know the
Real truth is never spoken
And I know the world is cold but
If you hold on tight to what you
Find you might not mind too much though
Even this must pass away and
Memories may last for years but
Names are just for souvenirs
Some kind of angel let me
Look into your eyes
Don't give me whys and wherefores
Reason or surprise
I don't care for words that don't belong
And I don't care what you're called
Tell me later if at all
I can wait a long long time
Before I hear another love song
Come here I think you're beautiful
My door is open wide
Some kind of angel come inside
Come here I think you're beautiful
I think you're beautiful beautiful
Some kind of angel come inside
Come here I think you're beautiful
I think you're beautiful
Some kind of angel come inside
Come here I think you're beautiful
My door is open wide
Some kind of stranger come inside
Come here I think you're beautiful
I think you're beautiful beautiful
Some kind of stranger come inside
Come here I think you're beautiful
I think you're beautiful
Some kind of stranger come inside
[repeat last three verses to fade]
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By Rooster
A surreal climate of ruin flows like a black waterfall.
An icon of Gothic Rock in itself.
