Smile's Ok

Hope Blister | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 12, 1999)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Mammoth / Pgd
• ASIN: B00000HXF5
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #216,794 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Dagger

2. Only Human

3. Outer Skin

4. Sweet Unknown

5. Let the Happiness In

6. Is Jesus Your Pal?

7. Spider and I

8. Hanky Panky Nohow

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, August 18, 2000

By 

Rafael Cova "Kid X" (Caracas, Venezuela) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Smiles OK (Audio CD)

Hope Blister - two incongruously paired words, but one unified concept. Put a 'The' in front of them and you have a band.

Of sorts.

The Hope Blister began early 1997 in the fertile mind of Ivo Watts-Russell, who founded 4AD in 1980 and embarked on one of the most enterprising, beguiling journeys known to independent record labels. Traversing from The Birthday Party to The Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance to Throwing Muses, The Pixies to The Breeders, Ivo still found time to conceive This Mortal Coil, a conglomeration of musicians he'd either signed, knew or admired and a heavenly jukebox/treasure trove of his favourite songs. Ivo wasn't a musician himself, but he had this sound in his head, and with help from engineer John Fryer, he 'conducted' the players, wrote instrumental links, and came up with three acclaimed albums - 1984's It'll End In Tears, 1986's double Filigree And Shadow and 1990's Blood.

Eight years after This Mortal Coil, and five years after Ivo shifted from London to Los Angeles (4AD's base remained in London), Ivo started craving the studio again - hence The Hope Blister. The principle was the same, banding together cover versions, handpicked for their melodic ingenuity, tapping Ivo's devout love of musical melancholia, except that Ivo's chosen interpreters this time around are just a singular band of players, given a much more minimalistic brief. Louise Rutkowski (who contributed to This Mortal Coil) on vocals, Lawrence O'Keefe (ex-Levitation and currently Dark Star) on bass, Audrey Reilly on string arrangements, Ivo on spiritual guidance/production and John Fryer on mixing duties is all. Richard Thomas appears on two tracks (Hanky Panky Nohow and Sweet Unknown).

Of the songs, the final selections were Dagger (by Neil Halstead, ex-Slowdive, now of 4AD signings Mojave 3), Only Human (Heidi Berry, who recorded three albums for 4AD), Outer Skin (Chris Knox of New Zealand duo Tall Dwarfs), Sweet Unknown (Alison and Jim Shaw of Cranes), Let The Happiness In (David Sylvian, of Japan and solo fame), Is Jesus Your Pal? (by the Icelandic band Slow Blow, previously covered by 4AD's new Icelandic signings GusGus), Spider & I (Eno, who needs no further explanation) and Hanky Panky Nohow (John Cale - likewise). It's some of the simplest music you'll hear this or any year, and some of the most beautiful - it's a bath-and-candle kind of record, or as Ivo says, "music for people who don't like to go out." It goes against the grain of much modern music - and gladly so.

"In the studio", Ivo recalls, "the music took it's own course. It had been a long time since I'd been in the studio, so it took me some time to even realise what I was trying to do. All I knew was, I wanted things to pretty much revolve around the bass guitar, and some strings. There were very few people involved, with very little preparation, playing games of musical consequence, passing ideas around. The whole thing was beautifully relaxed and easy."

For Ivo, The Hope Blister is a new expression thematically linked to This Mortal Coil, but equally separate. "When Blood was finished, I said that that would be the third and final This Mortal Coil album, and that's what it is. It stems from the fact that groups usually outstay their welcome, and make records that aren't as essential as their earlier work. I felt happy with This Mortal Coil, and wanted to leave it feeling happy, and not interfere with its legacy."

"Also, I feel differently now, and as a result, I feel differently about the project. I was less concerned with what my tangible role was - I was simply delighted to be able to be the enabler of the project."

As for the art of cover versions, a touchy subject out there, we're not talking the inappropriateness of Paul Young doing Love Will Tear Us Apart or Simple Minds doing Street Hassle. Ivo: "The intention is not to better the original, it's just a question of affection for them. Hopefully it's just a new reading, when new expression or intonation becomes part of the song."

The album reflects where Ivo's head is at: high in the hills above Silverlake in LA, away from the numbers, the 'scene', still in love with music but not all its trappings. "This record takes me where I want to go with music. I find very little music does that these days. I like the feeling of comfort and being at home, of having your furniture arranged around you..."

Finally, the name, The Hope Blister. "I wanted two words that worked together that normally don't. Hope Blister popped into my head, sitting in a traffic jam one day...it means different things to me, but the meaning is pretty much contained within the name, simultaneously positive and negative. Virtually everything in life is like that."

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars All This Mortal Coil fans MUST buy this!!!!!, August 23, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Smiles OK (Audio CD)

Although not as expansive as the last two This Mortal Coil releases, The Hope Blister's "smile's ok" is comparably haunting--exquisitely produced from the amazing vocals (Louise Rutkowski), string arrangements, and every other lush detail of instrumentation...anyone who has been craving new This Mortal Coil material (which will reportedly never come to be) certainly will be more than delighted with the absolute beauty of The Hope Blister's new release...it is worth many, many listenings and much respect. Kudos to Ivo, The Hope Blister, and everyone at 4ad from a devoted longtime fan!!!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of my desert island selections, June 13, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Smile's Ok (Audio CD)

It's been a few years now since Ivo has recorded this work of art, but it still finds its way onto my stereo at least once a week, sometimes more. The balance of extreme sadness and radiant hope is what all new music composers should strive for, but few succeed.

This album is as brilliant as David Sylvian's "Gone To Earth" and Joy Division's "Closer". Hi art (although in a somewhat gray scale) at its best.