Blood (Remastered)

By the time This Mortal Coil released their third and final album in 1991, the collective of musicians behind the 4AD label had already shifted to a new generation. While label owner Ivo Watts-Russell had tapped members of The Cocteau Twins and Dead Can Dance for the first iterations of his supergroup, Blood employs newcomers like Heidi Berry and Mary Margaret O’Hara, as well as members of The Pixies, Belly, and The Rain Parade. The album is primarily a tribute to Watts-Russell’s love of '60s and '70s folk music, an interest that comes alive in the soulful covers of “With Tomorrow” (originally by Gene Clark) and “Til I Gain Control Again” (originally by Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell). Even though The Cocteau Twins and Dead Can Dance declined to participate, the beautifully ominous orchestrations of “Late Night,” “Andialu,” and “The Lacemaker” show that Watts-Russell was directly inspired by his most successful associates. While the music of Big Star was always a guiding influence on This Mortal Coil, that preoccupation never resulted in anything more perfect than this cover of Chris Bell's “You and Your Sister,” sung by Kim Deal and Tanya Donelly.