Customer Reviews

FILIGREE & SHADOW

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I heard of This Mortal Coil through a soundtrack, and I bought this CD on a whim--probably the best impulse buy I ever made. I first listened to it a few weeks later at three in the morning while smoking a cigarette and watching tree branches scrape my window. When you hear this music you will understand that it perfectly fit the moment. Dominic Appleton has the voice of a faceless lover in a gothic dream, and the instrumental pieces are quite haunting. "At First, and Then" is a gorgeous progression from calm to chaotic and frenzied that I see as a musical interpretation of either sex or death. "The Jeweller" is simply the best, most beautiful song I've heard, period. I found the Pearls Before Swine original version since I liked the cover so much, and the arrangement and vocals of This Mortal Coil's version make it far superior. This album also makes the best psychedelic music I've ever heard, bar none. It is great to chill out to--very relaxing, yet visionary. If I could own only one CD, this would be it.

After ordering 'Blood', the 3rd album from This Mortal Coil, I decided to pick up Filligree and Shadow, and I am very happy I did. This album combines gentle strings, throbbing guitars and gentle piano chords, along with mesmering synthesizers, creating a 76 minute epic 4AD masterpiece. I was shocked at how wonderful this CD is. Ivo Watts Russell takes a number of relatively unknown songs by other artists, and gives them a '4AD makeover'. (The Jeweller, Come Here My Love, My Father, Strength of Strings, Morning Glory, Firebrothers, I Must Have Been Blind, Alone, Drugs)
There are also a number of TMC originals, which connect the songs to each other quite well. Darker and Warmer than It'll End in Tears, but more unfocused than Blood.
If you like Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance, Pink Floyd, etc. Pick this album up. NOW.

I may be the lone voice of dissent on this page, but I must say, I have owned all three This Mortal Coil compilations for some time, and of the three, "Filigree and Shadow" is the weakest. It's not bad. But unlike the raw beauty of the "It'll End in Tears" tracks (which is mostly a Cocteau Twins/Dead Can Dance concoction - 4AD chief Ivo Watts-Russell hadn't yet a roster large enough by then!) and the epic sweep of "Blood" (which has a couple of guitar-laden clunkers but is otherwise packed with dark and soaring emotional stunners), this album has a more ambient feel, and thus lacks much personality or punch. I've listened to it several times and most of it just feels samey to me. It's good, but as a listening experience, the album is strictly a flat landscape, with few peaks or valleys.

Obviously many people here feel differently. But to those who may have been curious about This Mortal Coil, but aren't sure which CD to get first, I highly, highly recommend you start your journey with "Blood." Then rush out and get "It'll End in Tears." Heck, get them both at the same time.

I first heard this when I was in high school. Its melancholy demeanor, luscious melody and intriguing orchestration spoke well to me then. Over a decade after the first listen, this disc still remains compelling. The sequence of tracks that runs from "Thais (I)" to the end of the album is fantastically beautiful; if those tracks were an album unto themselves, it would be one of the most listened to albums I own. I still have just as much fun singing along with "I Must Have Been Blind," and I still adore the cover of David Byrne's "Drugs." And the ambient tracks (too numerous to mention) are superb.

I can't give it the five stars because, like the other TMC releases, it is inconsistent. Some songs haven't lasted as well and now they get on my nerves. Luckily, they seem to be crowded more towards the beginning of the disc.

It is still hard to believe this album was made and released in the early mid 1980's. It is so completely against the grain of the stereotypes of that time in that decade. So, as a result, when this was printed by then indie label 4AD, it became a startlingly original and instant classic album of a certain niche in underground culture.

First, there's the cover art - a distorted image of what appears to be some sort of vampiric creature. And that's really what the album kind of sounds like and why it had so much appeal to the "goth" or "gothic" underground. The album sounds like the collected anthems of an immortal creature. Something that was raised in another country perhaps, in splendour, then lived on and on. The clashingly classic and eloquent first tracks on the album are like a trip down memory lane for an old vampire. Then we hit some more energetic, 80's rock type material for the modern age of the undead creature. I can see someone listening to this and then reading Anne Rice. Wait, actually I DID see that in my childhood because my brother was a 80's goth in California! He now watches Invader Zim and does design work.

Regardless, it was in large part due to this album that I realized music didn't have to be the top 40 on the radio. I later discovered my own bands like Sonic Youth and Flying Saucer Attack yet I still give a nod to the This Mortal Coil experience. There really is NOTHING like this album that I can think of and I've heard a lot of music as a radio dj myself. If you think you're ready for an original listening experience then I invite you to try Filigree & Shadow.

Highlights include : Ivy and Neet, the hard to pronounce "Thais", Strength of Strings - and the goth girl anthem "Come Here My Love."

If you like this band you might like:
Harold Budd
Aphex Twin
Nine Inch Nails
Bauhaus

The second in the series of "This Mortal Coil"is much longer and Dominic Appleton of "Breathless"another unique band worth checking out, has offered up his vocal skills along with Alison Limeric, a vibrant wonderful singer,as well as the sisters Diedre and Loise Rutowski who`s harmonies rival the wilson sisters of the band "Heart".The first song "The Jewler" sung by Appleton is a sweet melancholy story and there are also some other storyteller type songs."My father" a Judy Collins song, Covered by Alison Limeric is extremly well done and as beautiful as songs get. Limerics voice sores to great hights and plumets to low visa versa,versa visa.I often have to repeat it because one listen is`nt enough."The strength of Strings" is a rather unique song but is a treat to hear and I must say at first I didn`t know it was Appleton on the vocal because I had never heard him sing in the range he`s using, meanwhile instrumental soundscapes run through it connecting it all together,same as the first but more experimental, dramitic and complicated venturing toward the tribal beat.If you liked the first then you will like this. If you are not familiar with any of them, but enjoy ecletic music then this is for you too.It`s one of those cd`s that you can put on whilst enjoying a quite evening to your selfe.Enjoy

This LP and its precursor (It'll End in Tears) are breathtaking and tear-jerking. Instrumentally perfect, Filigree weaves an abstract and romantic look at rejection, loneliness and enlightenment. If you have dropped too much LSD and cannot handle the telepathy any more, then this album is for you. Certain tracks require you to stretch your imagination, but reward greatly on doing so. Others are simple ballads with a sad lilt, and purportedly meaningful but safe lyrics for acid casualties. "Come here my love..." completely haunts me, and just that distantly-sung opening line makes my hairs stand on end. I simply adore this LP. Buy it!

As on the stunning debut "It'll end in tears", 4AD label owner Ivo and long-time producer John Fryer follow their predilection for creating music which fuses many different styles and moods, often drawing from neo-classical and chamber music. Surprisingly, "F&S" is not a mere rehash of the previous collection, as TMC have obviously taken a different path this time: Instead of the usual song sequencing where the individual tracks lead their separate lives, TMC constructed the album as a series of 'normal' songs which are seamlessly held together by short fragments, incidental mood pieces, landscapes of floating sounds, orchestral arrangements, or even some industrial drum loops. The blurring of lines between song and sound, between reality and fiction, pushes the album into an realm of otherworldly beauty and intrigue and bears the effort of endless hours in the studio. At times, the concept did remind me of Pink Floyd's "The Wall", and there are really a few elements -- such as the circling helicopter in "Thais 1/2" -- which are directly taken from this mega-work. The outstanding musician on "F&S" is multi-instrumentalist Simon Raymonde, who took some time out from the Cocteau Twins while 'the other two' were working on "Victorialand". Raymonde delivers a breathtakingly beautiful ambient instrumental with "Ivy and neet", clearly inspired by piano player and ambient master Harold Budd: It begins with dark, slow piano chords and ominous atmospherics drifting in an ocean of delay and reverb, then adds some gentle saxophone before it fades away into nothingness and loneliness. The other instrumental tracks in the album's first half also have enough ideas for their length, such as the bright guitar chords of "Meniscus", the orchestral interlude of "Tears" and the ethnic drumming of "At first..", the latter being played by DCD's percussionist. The vocal pieces also manage to shine, most notably the Appleton-sung "The jeweller", the rock-inspired "Strength of strings", and "Morning glory" with its powerful piano line and playful synth accompaniment. And then, some rather odd things happen: First comes the avant-garde string arrangement of "Inch-blue", followed by the fragile and wonderful "I want to live". But "Mama k1" with its industrial drum loops (which are more in line with, say, Nitzer Ebb and Front 242) breaks the mood, and the noisy title track features too many disconnected sounds sharing the space, some discordant, some melodic. Unfortunately, this pattern occurs a few times in the album's second half, but there are enough good tracks to counteract the dismal ones and prevent the album from getting tangled in its own loose web: "A heart.." slowly evolves from hard-hitting drum loops to menacing drones and waves of ambient sounds, while the musically very psychedelic "Firebrothers" provides another showcase for the mysterious vocalist Richenel. The awkward moments come with the cover version of Colin Newman's "Alone" and the utterly dire "Drugs" (originally recorded by The Talking Heads); both songs kick in with relentless beats and rather vitriolic vocals, but this style simply doesn't fit with the rest of the record . Thankfully, Raymonde turns in another superb performance on "Red rain", where his typically throbbing bass and exquisite melodies provide a convincing bed for Seaman's totally triumphant vocals. Honestly, this track is as good as any mid-'80s song by the Cocteau Twins and flows gracefully into "Thais 2", another excellent ambient soundscape which concludes the album on an unpredictably peaceful note. Though "F&S" is not as successful at finding the right balance of styles and moods as the project's first album was, there's nevertheless an impressive selection to choose from, and most people will find a lot of pieces to enjoy. Having said that, I do understand where some of the criticism comes from: There are a few cuts which border on unlistenable, and the vocal compositions are not as strong as those of TMC's other records, perhaps due to the lack of a really distinguished singer like Liz Fraser or Gordon Sharp. Still, the album's impressive ambitions and its unorthodox structure, which is more allied to efforts by Pink Floyd or Yes, make it an essential item for your record collection.

A slow lingering polished project of fathomless melancholy. Mystified storylines of love and tragedy beautifully presented yet somehow pleasantly disturbing. Gothic storms and effervescent fires slowly burning through the ages. One cannot escape being drawn in deeply by songs of sad happiness and mysterious emotional landscapes. A skilled production by Ivo & Frye. This was the second of three such productions and the masterwork of the trio.

I absolutely love this album. A friend made us a tape of this back in 1986 after he got it for xmas(on vinyl, no less). It's been one of our favorites since. And, more importantly, it introduced us to different kinds of music..different sounds and instruments, and ways of singing that have just taken us to other artists we love that we may never have known about if it were not for This Mortal Coil. I'm not going to rate it next to the other TMC works, which we own also, because they are all different and special.