NEW SONGS!

[Pista]

“The Sisters of Mercy to release 5-song ‘Better Reptile E.P.’ ahead of new album - track listing”
https://www.tomorrowtides.com/sisters-wikileaks.html

I read this site for a years and it's highly likely that it will be my very first response here. But guess what? For a minute I believed it's true
Unbelievable emotions

Hello & welcome to

[Todashi]

Something just occurred to me. Von has said he prefers songs with less complicated lyrics as they're easier to remember and sing live.

The new songs aren't that complicated or long lyrically - but there are a lot of them. In the recent gigs, he's singing five or six new songs in the set - that adds up. He's actually got more to remember now that usual.

This is probably one reason why the performances seem particularly good. He's got more riding on them - he can't phone it in even if he wanted to. I'd say he's probably got more stage nerves than for quite some time, and the shows have an edge because of it.

[iesus]

Todashi is correct we are facing an entering to a minimalistic lyric era which every word counts but it is easy to remember.
Was thinking similar things since weekend and the first appearance of "Here" and "DDOI", which along with the previous new songs and the percentage of them in setlist rising more, makes it more visually clear.

[euphoria]

Interesting, there might be something to it - my feeling is also that he's both more focused and singing clearer when singing the new songs, whereas he can be unbelievably out of phase when singing the classics, like "More". I think in at least three clips so far he has been totally unsynchronised and it has all been in old songs.

[lazycatze]

Hello & welcome to

Thank you very much. It's a pleasure to be here

Interesting, there might be something to it - my feeling is also that he's both more focused and singing clearer when singing the new songs, whereas he can be unbelievably out of phase when singing the classics, like "More". I think in at least three clips so far he has been totally unsynchronised and it has all been in old songs.

I guess the reason is that it's the only way to make a new material legible to the audience. Because we have no studio recordings of the new songs, haha

[euphoria]

I guess the reason is that it's the only way to make a new material legible to the audience. Because we have no studio recordings of the new songs, haha

Haha, yeah maybe, kind of him

No really, I really love it that he is so focused on the new songs! Even if he's never gonna release anything, it makes me happy to see his presence and a real effort to do the songs really good! Also, even if he doesn't like being on stage, he's incredibly good at it.

[deirfiur]

The money these days is in gigs not recording.. so, by not releasing new songs, then fans have to go to gigs to hear them...it provides a reason for fans to buy tickets.... it makes (some) financial sense..

[copper]

Todashi is correct we are facing an entering to a minimalistic lyric era which every word counts but it is easy to remember.

That direction was being set in the late 90's already, with the even too bare Will I Dream (basing on the HAL lines in the Space Odyssey films) and Romeo Down, for instance. Easier to sing, but also, more challenging to write. Less strokes with the palette knife. Good news that likes to put his lyrical prowess to the test.

Here lyrics neatly merge a "cinematic" setting (mob guys breaking into someone's house, or the like) with the threat/aftermath of violence. This is constrasted by the music - the result could described as a more tender Ribbons.

DDOI is also pretty sweet.

[Todashi]

Interesting take away from the Dutch interview published on April 4th (link in the Reviews and Interviews section) - Von reckons he's written 60 songs since Vision Thing and 30 in the last two years alone.

That's a lot of songs.

[Being645]

Interesting take away from the Dutch interview published on April 4th (link in the Reviews and Interviews section)

Yes, and here: https://www.myheartland.co.uk/viewtopic ... 67#p701967 ... ...

[lazycatze]

The money these days is in gigs not recording.. so, by not releasing new songs, then fans have to go to gigs to hear them...it provides a reason for fans to buy tickets.... it makes (some) financial sense..

I guess that gigs are the only way for him to get some money. I don't think that they can get enough from merch or physical releases of the old material.

[Husek]

Controversial opinion:
While I'm really happy with all the new songs, I'm somewhat underwhelmed by the setlists, IMHO we were in a better shape in 2011~2014/2017, with Kiss The Carpet, Logic, Rock and a Hard place, body and soul, body electric, logic, flood 1+2.

It's great Von took dominion and summer out of circulation for a while, after all, they are staples since 98 at this point, VT had a good run too, didn't mind retiring it for now. I prefer Train/Det over Jeep/Det too, but honestly, I'd drop them both in favour of Anaconda for instance.
Do we really need ribbons there? I get it, it's a killer song, but at this point, I'd rather having Kickline or another new song instead.
Also, Kiss is a better opener than More, fight me on this.

Another hot-take, Dylan is a brilliant songwriter and added a creative spark to the band, but boy Mr Catalyst is a better performer by far.

Oh man, I got old enough to join the team and start complaining about the sisters, didn't I?

[LyanvisAberrant]

Oh man, I got old enough to join the team and start complaining about the sisters, didn't I?

Hell, I'm 24 and had to step away for a bit. Just a band, I tell myself

[mh]

Do we really need ribbons there? I get it, it's a killer song, but at this point, I'd rather having Kickline or another new song instead.

No argument from me on that one. Surely even the band must be fed up of Ribbons by now? I would have said the same about This Corrosion, but the new intro (new! since 2016!) rejuvenated it a little and I think it's a great set closer now.

Also, Kiss is a better opener than More, fight me on this.

I'm OK with More, it always gets the crowd well-pumped for the upcoming gig.

Another hot-take, Dylan is a brilliant songwriter and added a creative spark to the band, but boy Mr Catalyst is a better performer by far.

I enjoyed Chris as a performer and there's no denying that at the time he joined the band, they badly needed someone like him. There's also no denying the work he did for the band. He did seem to get a bit grumpy and was maybe wishing he was somewhere else towards the end of his time, and I prefer Dylan's backing vocals - Chris's never seemed to fit well.

[markfiend]

Another hot-take, Dylan is a brilliant songwriter and added a creative spark to the band, but boy Mr Catalyst is a better performer by far.

Good luck with getting Chris away from Ghost now

[Todashi]

I'm not a fan of More as an opener. It's a natural encore candidate, not an opener to me.

I personally like Chris, and the Eureka Machines, and he seems like a really personable guy -- witty, kind and generous. He's a talented musician as well but . . . I don't think his personality (in so far as I can perceive it from a distance, I've never met him so this might all be s**t!) meshes that well with the idea of the Sisters 'brand.'

For a sisters song to BE a sisters song, it has to have a certain menace, a whiff of cordite off it and so on. Eldritch is a charismatic and exciting performer and stage artist but I don't want to bring him home and cuddle him. That's not what a singer like him is for.

He sells swagger, insolence and intelligence with an undercurrent of danger when he's on stage. Again, I don't know him. He could be adorable and fun in his personal life, I'm only commenting on the part of them that is exposed to the public.

I think he and Chris probably got on fine off stage and could work together, but the artistic relationship doesn't seem to me to have had anywhere to go.

We don't know who wrote what on the new songs. Maybe Dylan wrote all of them. Maybe Ben wrote all of them. Maybe Von wrote all of them. Regardless, it works. I wouldn't mess with that now.

[Todashi]

Also, I'm delighted on a personal level for Chris that he appears to have landed on his feet. He's a smashing guy, a grafter and he deserves to do well. Von has built his career and is entitled to trade off it - he's had his moment in the sun, made his money, been a rockstar etc.

Chris is a young man and wants to make his mark too. He's has every right to do that and deserves the chance.

[Husek]

Yeah absolutely, More is 100% an encore song to me too.

I wouldn't exactly say that Chris' artistic persona is not compatible with the sisters, but as @mh pointed out, he seemed to be a bit grumpy by the end.
In his defence, he was promised the world, recording albums, new songs and whatnot, and for one reason or other, we never got the new album, and word on the street is that von discarded dozens of songs that ben and Chris brought to him.

Idk, that sounds like plenty of reason to get jaded with the gig, on the other hand, Chris' departure seems to have caused some emotional response from Von, I wouldn't be surprised given his history that all this new material was written out of spite or something.

[lazycatze]

I'm not a fan of More as an opener. It's a natural encore candidate, not an opener to me.

I quite agree with you here.
I think that FALAA is the best Sisters opener ever.

[LyanvisAberrant]

On a completely unrelated note, to bring the thread back to the new songs for a second:
At the recent Nijmegen gig, Ben played a new riff in the outro for But Genevieve, and it's a brilliant little detail that helps break the two sections up. A nice and more sombre spin on a riff that, by the ending of the song, is perhaps getting a bit old.

Which has been my main gripe, if you can even call it that, with the modern songs. They are a little lazily repetetive. Sisters are no strangers to repetition by any means, but it's never uncalculated and always to make a point. These new songs are working well for me, but I find myself wanting a midsection here or there.

[MAndrews]

‘HERE’


creatures of tinsel and gauze

lametta to the max

a neon Faust to you, and just because

we beat your body to the rack


so observe

while we reach for our unravel

we get to teach you what you know

you need reminding though

we will let a little show

do we hit a nerve or do we hit a vein?


tinsel and vain

we are here


lametta and vendetta

we are here

[Icon]

Thanks, Mark!
Did you figure that out or do you have a way to contact Von for the actual lyrics?
Sounds completely acurate to me.

[Todashi]

Yeah, that reads suspiciously accurately to me. Well done.

Although it seems to depend on which recording your working from. At Groningen he skips some of these, but he sings them elsewhere.

(I don't think I could get that read of the lyrics if I was standing in front of Von lipreading while he sang.)

[LyanvisAberrant]

Wow, I'd call that a bullseye

[A Cat named Kasimir]

Prelude to masochism:
I was extremely excited when they told the world there’s new songs on setlist for the 2019 tour. Hearing they were working hard on new material and compared to the many years before, when even I was thinking, at some point it might get boring now to mostly hear the same songs again and again on every tour, only in different order (the mandatory cover version of whatever didn’t really cut it for me those days) got me hoping again.
For what iffy reason ever, I decided to NOT listen to any of the new songs until the show. I guess after the slight disappointments (slight. I still enjoyed the shows) the years before I wanted to feel and not just listen to. You don’t get new Sisters songs every day, especially in those days.
I went to the 2019 Stuttgart concert, got me a beer and a shirt and right when AA Williams started, I got an emergency call from my girl. And that’s how I missed the concert.
I got me a ticket for the Karlsruhe show, which was luckily announced quickly, and I told myself again: No new songs on Youtube until live!
Then Corona flooded the world two weeks before the concert and after four (or five) postponements and over two years of self-inflicted suffering I finally attended the Karlsruhe concert last week. And nearly half of the set were the new songs. Redemption, finally.
As for the new songs:
I very much like the new sound on “Don’t Drive On Ice” and “Here”. On the others too, sure! They fit Andrews new voice and the whole thing is smooth again and quite better to understand, although I still can’t hear the full lyrics even of the classics I know for years.
Maybe it’s because I mostly visited Stuttgart gigs the last years and some might know that this city is not well known for crystal clear sound, no matter which venue the Sisters ever played there (except maybe late 80s/early 90s Sporthalle Böblingen, which always was a few (tiny) levels better than any other). I’m not sure, but it seems to me for now, as The Sisters used to alternate their sound every now and then (not so much in the latter years), this might gonna be the next change in the Sisters’ sound history. The typical aggression is not so much in the sound anymore but still in the lyrics and the whole composition is clearer. Sound and voice match better now and I believe that it was supposed to be like this.
Or is it just due to the venue? I’ve got no possibility of comparison, the really good to pretty great concerts I attended were in Amsterdam and Berlin and Hamburg, but looong ago. If it’s not the venues fault, and the Sisters sound evolves again, will the arrangements of the classics also change, as it happened yet to “I Was Wrong” and a few others?
I'm clearly aware there will be no new Sisters record, but I’d really like to know how those new songs are supposed to sound well-produced. Live there’s still too many mumblegrumbles for me to tell.
For now, I’m totally back to when I listened to my first Sisters records. Now we can’t really tell, if or in which direction the Sisters will evolve this time and I’m totally anxious to what will come up next. (Can we tell? At least I can’t. And I also don’t want to. Surprise me!) I’ll be a little child now, a few days before Christmas.
And even if that was all, I love it a lot and will be deeply grateful.
Right now I’m not able to prefer any of the new songs, they are playing randomly, now that I know how they feel. And the load is fantastic. I got eight new songs in Karlsruhe. EIGHT! That’s as much as I got from 1998 to 2017 (probably not, but right now it feels like that).
And my apologies if any of my outpour has been said before: Not to listen to the new songs included not knowing anything about them, so I haven’t read in the “New Songs” post until later when I’m gonna catch up on this.