Customer Reviews

Smile's Ok

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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."

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!!!

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.

Oh my god - the previous post by A music fan from College Station, TX United States hit the nail perfectly. Really.
If your adolescence was soothed by Cocteau Twins, This Mortal Coil (of Filigree and Shadow fame especially) and you are still a searcher ... please consider Arvo Part and Gorecki's Symphony No. 3. There you will find the true coming of age that producer Ivo hinted at in the younger mist-dimmed 4 AD days long past that Hope Blister recalls, however hazily. (The Gorecki brings bitter tears to my eyes, so I can only spin it once a year - if that! You owe it to yourself ...)
But Smile's OK is ... well, ok. For those grasping for 4 AD straws, it recalls the "music for people who don't like to go out" days of the best of the label. But it is also pungently reminiscent of the worst of the label - the adolescent self-indulgence and "drama" that the later This Mortal Coil veered toward in "Blood" and even "It'll End in Tears," some of which was brilliant - some of which was fatally self-involved. If you're just pining for the good old days of all-black wardrobes, moon-tans and cardigans (be honest now), you'd do better to re-spin "filigree and shadow" or the Twins' "Treasure" or "Victorialand." Still, I bought this album as an act of loyalty and gratitude - I love the drone of "Is Jesus Your Pal?" and the "strength of strings" in "Spider and I" (where else are you going to find songs so "It'll End in Tears" being recorded - thanks Ivo!!) and I love the melancholy guitar and processed vocals in "Sweet Unknown" - ignoring the high-schoolish premise of the song ("For a while our world seemed right..." c'mon, it's a bit self-involved and Tragic) but I absolutely applaud any label recording totally un-mainstream creatively dark-bright serious-poetic songs to one's self with hardly a drummer in the house. Oh whatever, go ahead, buy this release - "Spider and I" makes it worth it for any true This Mortal Coil fan. You are - you are not - you are - alone. And that's the point, right?

I don't have much to add to the previous reviewers, as they did a great job with describing the tracks and other details. I just wanted to agree and say that if you are a 4AD collector and have enjoyed the This Mortal Coil albums, you must get this and the additional CD "Underarms" for your collection. To me, 4AD, Ivo and the musicians that create these beautiful sounds,are the ultimate musical experience. They are timeless and I never tire of listening to them. Another CD you may track down if you have not yet is a compilation made by 4AD: "Lonely Is An Eyesore" which comprised of individual tracks from 4AD bands. There is also a videocassette by the same name, most likely hard to get by now.

"It'll End in Tears", the first This Mortal Coil album, was an opening door to the world of 4AD -- my appreciation of the Cocteau Twins led me to discover Dead Can Dance, Wolfgang Press, Breathless, and so many others. Sadly, there will be no further This Mortal Coil albums, but The Hope Blister satisfies my craving. Producer Ivo Watts-Russell has once again struck gold, albeit in a slightly different vein. A quieter and much sparer effort than any of This Mortal Coil's three albums, this nevertheless has much that will please fans of the original 4AD project.

The mood is mostly contemplative, frequently dark (even David Sylvian's bright "Let the Happiness In" interpreted in a tone of a plea). Breaking with tradition, only one singer gives voice to the album. Louise Rutkowski (herself a This Mortal Coil alumna) wonderfully provides warmth to the variety of sources and styles. Familiar will be the beautiful arrangements of rich strings, bass guitar, and some atmospheric horn. Once again, Ivo has chosen an broad array of material which holds together well as an album (evry track is great, with special notice going to the plaintive "Sweet Unknown" and the mostly true-to-life cover of Eno's "Spider and I").

I first read of The Hope Blister in an issue of A.P. (Alternative Press) and immediately purchased the disc. If any are familar with This Mortal Coil, then here is a beautiful continuation. With this album, Ivo has, again, given audiences a glimpse of a place wrung with grace and melancholy. I am a painter, so when in front of a canvas, I put in The Hope Blister to provide me with an aural muse...

...That's how producer Ivo Watts-Russell characterizes this studio effort and I must that pretty much sums it up. Mind you, this is not at all negative. The album creates - and sustains - a warm homely atmosphere that is highly intelligent and melancholic - and, above all, timeless. The albums of its predecessor, This Mortal Coil, still sound fresh some fifteen years later, and Ivo has been able to keep that up. Less experimental, less inspired than the classic TMC "Filigree and Shadow", this album is absolutely one of the more heartbreakingly beautiful releases of the year.

"Smile's OK" is stunningly beautiful, albeit in a darker, brooding way. The songs flow _so_ nicely, coaxing the listener to drink the potion again and again, even though with each drink your drawn down deeper. The cover of Slowdive's "Dagger" and David Sylvian's "Let The Happiness In" are personal highlights, though the whole CD just begs to be played again and again.

I somehow missed this when it was released in 1998, well not somehow, I no longer expected anything from 4ad or actively disliked what they were releasing by that time. For me I guess the label was most meaningful from about 1984 to 1989, Cocteau Twins to Pixies.

But recently I found myself in a 4ad mood, listening to not just Filigree and Shadow, and earlier Cocteaus, but even giving Blood a spin (to my disappointment, see review). I heard about Hope Blister and figured I'd give it a try.

I do like it, in fact it almost seems too short, as if by the end they were just getting going. It starts off slow, with a cover of Slowdive's Dagger which is not terribly interesting. The original is haunting and spare, as is Hope Blister's. The mid-section of the album is spare as well, just vocals with strings or ambient noise. In my opinion Ivo engineers this much better than he did five years previously with Blood, however. The effects on the voice lend it a power found on the first two TMC albums, rather than the precious girlishness of Blood. I felt, in fact, vindicated listening to it that Ivo tried to create a sound that was more in continuity with the early TMC efforts rather than with Blood.

It is the last three songs that really grab the attention. They are deeply layered and have a complexity that will remind you of earlier 4ad music, but they are not simply riffs on earlier material, but have a power and structure all their own. In addition, as even the cover of Dagger would sugggest, Ivo had been paying attention to contemporary music and learned from the best of it, dare I suggest even Radiohead here?

If you are a fan of classic 4ad you will not be disappointed, but you won't be bowled over either. If you are a fan of new "goth" or ersatz 4ad you'll dig it too.