4AD 1991 / This Mortal Coil / Pale Saints / The Wolfgang Press / His Name is Alive / Pixies

1990


DAD 1005 - This Mortal Coil / Blood
Released April 21 1991

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The third and final album by This Mortal Coil, 1991's Blood is neither as unfocused as Filigree & Shadow or as conceptually pure as It'll End in Tears, but it's a solidly enjoyable set. Once again, nearly half the tracks are instrumentals (or tracks with minimal and often wordless female vocals) written by Ivo Watts-Russell and John Fryer, but this batch of tunes holds together much better than the much more amorphous originals on Filigree & Shadow; lengthy atmospheric explorations like "Dreams Are Like Water" sound composed and thoughtful rather than merely pretty. And as always, the covers are brilliantly chosen. The twin highlights are two songs written by Big Star's Chris Bell; "I Am the Cosmos" is reinterpreted as a ragged, brink-of-chaos rocker that sounds like it could have been on Big Star's post-Bell magnum opus, Third, while a delicate acoustic version of "You and Your Sister" with wispy, unsure vocals by Kim Deal and Tanya Donelly ranks with the first album's reinterpretation of Tim Buckley's "Song to the Siren" as one of the group's masterpieces. Other gems include a near-symphonic reading of Spirit's "Nature's Way" and a version of Syd Barrett's "Late Night" that strips the song down to not much more than Caroline Crawley's voice and a low-frequency hum. - Stewart Mason, All Music Guide

CAD 1011 - The Wolfgang Press / Queer
Released June 1991

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Recorded with the aid of ex-Throwing Muses bassist Leslie Langston, Queer is the Wolfgang Press' leap into the world of dance music. The cover of Randy Newman's "Mama Told Me (Not to Come)" underscores the record's stranger-in-a-strange-land vibe as Michael Allen's dramatic vocals and arcane obsessions collide head-on with the ecstatic physicality and immediacy of the dancefloor; cold and remote, the result is alien funk, a collection of idiosyncratic rhythms, dark textures, and ominous grooves. - Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide

CAD 1013 - His Name is Alive / Home Is In Your Head
Released July 25 1991

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Dark, disturbing, and beautiful, His Name Is Alive's Home Is in Your Head develops the deceptively simple, abstractly emotional music they introduced on Livonia. Held together by Warren Defever's artful production, its 23 songs range from jealous contemplation to spiritual concerns, from gentle folk to white noise guitar outbursts. Karin Oliver's supple voice lends itself to an array of musical and emotional settings: she's acidly sweet on "The Charmer"'s brittle taunt "Where is your head now?/I should nail it to her door/Where are your hands now?/I know what you'd use them for." On "Why People Disappear," she's pensive: "Maybe I know as much as I ever will/We've been forever." The numerous instrumentals and interludes add to the overall yearning, searching mood. "Her Eyes Were Huge Things" builds subtle strumming and Oliver's sighs into an evocative spell, while "Hope Called in Sick" crashes in with loud, wailing guitars. The group's sound collages also find more purpose here than on Livonia; the chanting children on "Put Your Finger in Your Eye" are downright unnerving, and "Spirit and Body" conjures a story of loss out of a ticking watch and just-audible snippets of conversation. With the oddly comforting finale, "Dreams Are of the Body," Home Is in Your Head completes a seamless exploration of music and emotion. - Heather Phares, All Music Guide

CAD 1014 - Pixies / Trompe Le Monde
Released October 08 1991

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The title might be French for "fool the world," but with Trompe le Monde, the Pixies weren't fooling anyone: this was essentially Black Francis' solo debut. It focuses on Francis' sci-fi fascination and lacks any Kim Deal songs; even her backing vocals are far and few between. Yet the band sounds revitalized on Trompe le Monde, as if it were planned as their last hurrah. The raucous "Distance Equals Rate Times Time" and the explosive cover of the Jesus and Mary Chain's "Head On" are fairly straightforward, but the lyrics remain quirky on "Planet of Sound," a song about a Martian who lands on Earth, and "Palace of the Brine," a tribute to sea monkeys and Utah's Salt Lake. He even disses hipsters and pretentious students -- basically, the Pixies' fan base -- with nasty little digs like "Subbacultcha"'s "I was wearing eyeliner/She was wearing eyeliner" and "U-Mass"' "It's eduuucaaationaal!" Musically, "Trompe le Monde"'s psychedelic sheen and "Alec Eiffel"'s atmospheric keyboards prove that the Pixies' sound wasn't defined by Steve Albini-style rawness. There's also more emotional depth: "The Sad Punk" features the strangely poignant bridge "And evolving from the sea/Would not be too much time for me/To walk beside you in the sun," and "Letter to Memphis" is a heartfelt, if cryptic, love song. Though Trompe le Monde doesn't sound quite like the Pixies' other work, Come on Pilgrim's spooky beginnings, Surfer Rosa's abrasive assault, Doolittle's deceptively accessible punk-pop, and Bossanova's spacy sonics helped make Trompe le Monde a rousing swan song and a precursor to alternative rock's imminent success. Whether that means their music remained pure or they missed their chance to cash in is debatable; either way, the Pixies are one of America's greatest, most influential bands. - Heather Phares, All Music Guide

COCY 7096 - Pale Saints / Mrs. Dolphin
Released January 10 1991

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A handy compilation of the band's earliest EPs, Mrs. Dolphin was a Japanese-only release that swiftly became a new point of obsession among the band's fans when it first came out, leading the group themselves to ask that folks not re-buy material for only a bonus song or two. That said, the unfamiliar songs that did surface were quite enjoyable -- "Colours and Shapes," if one of the more conventional compositions from the band, still has a nicely hyperactive drum shuffle on the verses and a fine Ian Masters lead vocal. "A Deeper Sleep for Steven," an alternate take of the Comforts of Madness track, isn't radically different, but has a little less echo and still makes its attractively woozy way along. As for the rest of the contents, consisting of tracks from Barging Into the Presence of God and Half-Life Remembered, both still sound as wonderful as ever, the often-underappreciated creativity of the band in their rhythm work and sometimes off-kilter melodies still shining through. "Sight of You" remains a deserved high point of U.K. indie as well as being one of the best drone/shoegaze songs ever done, with Masters' sweet singing belying the sharp sentiments of the lyrics while his majestic guitar overdubs are both loud and heavenly. More frenetic combinations of soothing singing and feedback chaos like "She Rides the Waves" and "Baby Maker" still sound truly captivating as well (the latter's shifts between wistful verses and pile-it-on choruses are to die for). A cruel trick for a dear friend -- play the dark, moody psychedelia of "The Colour of the Sky" at louder-than-usual volume and say nothing about the screaming that begins 50 seconds in. - Ned Raggett, All Music Guide