Andrew Eldritch: Why won't you release a new Sisters LP?

[Being645]

Everybody needs a break at times, Prescott ... ... so, enjoy the fresh air ... ... breathe, relax and recreate ...

[sultan2075]

I really don't understand the completely dire and rather dreadful pessimism and apathy of this fanbase.

Uhm. Have you been paying attention since 1993 or so? It's pretty understandable.

Yeah, I've been definitely watching the paint dry since 1993, hence why I started this thread. Hopefully Andrew has taken all the comments here into account lately. I guess I don't have anything more to say. Which will probably come as a relief to some around here. I'll get my coat.

I'm just as guilty as everyone else in this regard, but if I were E., and I saw this thread, I'd probably not be motivated to make a record. Quite the opposite, in fact.

[_emma_]

if I were E., and I saw this thread, I'd probably not be motivated to make a record.

I think I would be astonished, dissappointed, slightly saddened and somehow pensive, but only for a very short while, then I would shrug, fix myself a nice cold drink and continue to live my own life the way I like it without giving a damn about what anybody thinks about my own decisions concerning my own life.

[Prescott]

if I were E., and I saw this thread, I'd probably not be motivated to make a record.

I think I would be astonished, dissappointed, slightly saddened and somehow pensive, but only for a very short while, then I would shrug, fix myself a nice cold drink and continue to live my own life the way I like it without giving a damn about what anybody thinks about my own decisions concerning my own life.

I'm sure this attitude still applies:

"Too right. If you think that anybody wants to read your daft poetry, hear your crap band or put up with a torrent of cheap emotional blackmail, you've got another think coming. If you reckon the Sisters want to perform in your garden for ten quid, you're wrong. If you think they're going to respond to every stupid rumour or assertion that goes charging around the net, you're mad. If you think they want to hear you banging on about other bands uploading whole albums or spending fifty grand on web videos, you can go climb a rope."

It's just as constructive as ever, innit?

[Izzy HaveMercy]

if I were E., and I saw this thread, I'd probably not be motivated to make a record.

I think I would be astonished, dissappointed, slightly saddened and somehow pensive, but only for a very short while, then I would shrug, fix myself a nice cold drink and continue to live my own life the way I like it without giving a damn about what anybody thinks about my own decisions concerning my own life.

I'm sure this attitude still applies:

"Too right. If you think that anybody wants to read your daft poetry, hear your crap band or put up with a torrent of cheap emotional blackmail, you've got another think coming. If you reckon the Sisters want to perform in your garden for ten quid, you're wrong. If you think they're going to respond to every stupid rumour or assertion that goes charging around the net, you're mad. If you think they want to hear you banging on about other bands uploading whole albums or spending fifty grand on web videos, you can go climb a rope."

It's just as constructive as ever, innit?

And what strikes me as odd is the fact that they are very good in pointing out what will NOT happen. As for the other thing, ah well, pessimist, moi?

No, I will still listen to the old songs, Sisters concerts wil be very scarce and when the new album appears it might be a dull affair, but I'll see when it comes out.

IZ.

[James Blast]

This is a 'The Sisters Of Mercy' forum, surely it's thee place to voice our opinions/fears/joys/hates?

It's actually thee 'The Sisters Of Mercy Forum' and compared to the rest of the internets, we do play very nicely. Don't be upset by the odd out of control grumbles (Guilty!) we're passionate about the band.

or is it brand?

let's have a pint and go to a discotheque

[copper]

Another sometimes overlooked thing is the complaint has been voicing at times about the time he invests on his lyrics and the subtexts which have oft been lost on the audiences.

From 1995:

"From letters I recieved, I never got the impression that they understood what I was doing. The young people of today just don't have the ability to review a text, with some level of intelligence, and value them. Especially the ironicle subtone, no one saw it. The images and symboles I use, aparently don't get across".

Eldritch (in a somber tone): "Then I think, I just don't release something anymore. They never understood the debut album. The title song "First Last And Always" is about me, getting misinterpreted. They never picked it up. Then why would I release a new album...? No, the idea of getting The Sisters Of Mercy back to life, is not an attractive thought right now. Every time that I think in that direction, I can hear the press sharpening its knifes, Again"." - Translated from Dutch

Of course, he was saying this before the touring unit was reactivated and the future of the band, apparently, looked bleak. But from an artist's point of view, that would serve as his excuse.

In light of this, consider the fact that he put up the lyrics for Far Parade. It may just be his way of looking into how much effort is to put understand the lyrics, as opposed to just hearing groovy music.

The man cares deeply for the way he expresses himself through words, so I'd imagine it means more to him than just, "there you have it - a new song. What, music? Overdemanding."

And I'm ungood if I can't shout
Without the vowels or the label out

[James Blast]

or just 'teen angst' from an auld coot, get over it

[Being645]

if I were E., and I saw this thread, I'd probably not be motivated to make a record.

I think I would be astonished, dissappointed, slightly saddened and somehow pensive ...

Oh noo, I don't think we have been soo very ruthless this year ... to the contrary ...
I'm of course not Von, but for me this thread has been an enjoyable, informing and even somewhat amusing read, mostly ... ...

[Nikolas Vitus Lagartija]

Another sometimes overlooked thing is the complaint has been voicing at times about the time he invests on his lyrics and the subtexts which have oft been lost on the audiences.

From 1995:

"From letters I recieved, I never got the impression that they understood what I was doing. The young people of today just don't have the ability to review a text, with some level of intelligence, and value them. Especially the ironicle subtone, no one saw it. The images and symboles I use, aparently don't get across".

I was always amused that someone who knowingly (wilfully ?) wrote such obtuse lyrics then complained that people couldn't fathom the meaning of said texts.
The anguish of a misunderstood poetic genius, or self-proclaimed intellectual superiority to mask tragic self-doubt ?
Rationale or Rhyme and Reason ? You decide ...

[Being645]

Another sometimes overlooked thing is the complaint has been voicing at times about the time he invests on his lyrics and the subtexts which have oft been lost on the audiences.

From 1995:

"From letters I recieved, I never got the impression that they understood what I was doing. The young people of today just don't have the ability to review a text, with some level of intelligence, and value them. Especially the ironicle subtone, no one saw it. The images and symboles I use, aparently don't get across".

I was always amused that someone who knowingly (wilfully ?) wrote such obtuse lyrics then complained that people couldn't fathom the meaning of said texts.
The anguish of a misunderstood poetic genius, or self-proclaimed intellectual superiority to mask tragic self-doubt ?
Rationale or Rhyme and Reason ? You decide ...

I think, Sisters lyrics are great, also because they leave a lot open to the listener and at a level/at levels which cannot be accessed just like so ... thus raising awareness for and tackling issues which had found hardly any expression - and least of all in this directness - in music, in singing and maybe even in poetry before ... and on top of that without even the smallest drift to triviality ... but of course, that was not to last forever without any meaningful results in real life ...

To me, Gift, Vision Thing and SSV are full of irony ... but I wouldn't say that about most of the early singles and EPs or about FALAA or Floodland ... and I wouldn't even like to be able to say so ...
I've always found them expressive and clear in identifying certain details and their effect ... well, maybe some assess this effect as ironic ...which I'd find quite an understatement ...

Furthermore, reading and interpreting is one thing, listening to a record (not to mention going to gigs) is quite another ... and performing that stuff over years and in front of - in the event unrelated but often enough deeply concerned - audiences is/was another thing again ...

Hell, I really think, things are so much easier nowadays .... and with still the same issues and lyrics nowadays The Sisters rock more than ever ... maybe because the world has changed and their expressions (and those of other bands) have arrived more comprehensively with larger parts of their potential audience (again perhaps, though on a less exceptional level - thanks to societal developments over decades) ... uch ...

[moses]

I don't think his lyrics are obtuse or even that poetic, they're just interesting and delivered well. Subtext? Na.

[il duce]

Three things.

1. Von used to write great lyrics, really damn good. But lately, nah. I think the lyrics for the past 10 years has seriously declined. It is like he just does not give a s**t anymore.

2. Us complaining in this forum and Von reading it? Who cares, what do we have to lose. He will not release an album no matter if reads what we write or not.

3. Since there is about 1000 different ways a band can release music without a big ass record label and Von is not interested in neither. I say let us complain. If he did a pledge for example he would get so much money he did not know what to do with it. But I do not think he is interested in that at all. He has a chip on his shoulder the size of The Soviet Union and he wants the big labels to crawl before him, say they are sorry and that they made a mistake back in the stone age when record labels mattered.

[James Blast]

gonna read this, 'cause this is what's happened, I'm just a year older than Mr.E and I can totally relate

Here's something unpleasant: All art comes from demons. Not real demons, in most cases, but demons of angst and horrible memories and sexual frustration. You get beat up in school because, while the cool kids are putting bruises on each other on the football field, you were sitting on the steps writing your science-fiction stories or reading books waaaay above your head. That fear and tension that winds itself around your soul like steel wire as you try nervously to sneak out of the locker room before the big kids give you a wedgie or laugh at your winkle in the showers and skiddy underpants in the changing area, all that builds up into adulthood. Art is how you let it out.
It was an angsty bastard who introduced the world to 'Damage Done' by showing no regard for recording techniques or musical capabilities then cooly walking away, scoring some shit and moving onto something tangible and pretty dangerous.

Now, if the artist is lucky, that angst goes away. If the audience is lucky, it doesn't. The art dies with the angst, you see. By middle age the artist finds himself watching old films, television and listening to his once angsty period. Trying to make stuff that sort of looks and snouds the same. It gets bland. It gets tired.
It's not just with music, you can see this happening in other forms of art/meeja.

have a nice day

[Sita]

If its Angst, why did Peter Murphy make such a damn fine record just now? Can't imagine a man like him tortured by teenage demons.

[James Blast]

Good point (for a cat), it doesn't visit all of us. Thankfully.

[il duce]

Just replace Teenage angst with talent. Everybody is born with a certain amount of talent, some more some less. But talent is a pool that eventually will dry out, there are too many examples of this to even start namedropping.
So to get to the point, Von ran out a while back. And he knows it. So no new album, because no new songs.

Proof 1 with talent: Reptile House, Floodland.
Proof 2 without talent: I have slept with the all the girls in Berlin.

[James Blast]

FACT!

Slept is such a miserable dirge

Critical Error followed by

[lazarus corporation]

Apparently the fact that this thread is still going (mainly round and round in circles) is causing the database to throw errors when attempting to clear the sessions table.

Please stop before it gets stuck in an infinite loop.

[James Blast]

Get Bent?

just an idea

[Bartek]

Then we should bin Sisters Chat 'cause be still repeat 'when new album gonna be released? why not next Wednesday?'
never do pledge because then he may be own stupiod us something. And that would be disaster for both sides.

[James Blast]

makes perfeck senz to mee

[Izzy HaveMercy]

So Von should call the next album "Moebius".

IZ.

[Being645]

Just replace Teenage angst with talent. Everybody is born with a certain amount of talent, some more some less. But talent is a pool that eventually will dry out, there are too many examples of this to even start namedropping.
So to get to the point, Von ran out a while back. And he knows it. So no new album, because no new songs.

Proof 1 with talent: Reptile House, Floodland.
Proof 2 without talent: I have slept with the all the girls in Berlin.

... ... Slept is such a great idiot song. And it doesn't even lack tragedy ... ... entirely in Sisters tradition ... ...

You should have seen the faces of my fencing colleagues when I gave them a quick impression of the chorus ... ...

Everybody should do that time and again, quite enlightening, in fact ... ...

And as to talent: after the first few endeavours it's rather the motivation to go on that goes down,
because people get as rich and famous and loved as they wanted or they don't for too long.
Got nothing to do with talent but with expectations, dreams, hopes, needs, awareness, such stuff, IMHO.

[Prescott]

I think Slept is a fine song. Especially lyrically. It definitely is nuanced and subtle.

I wonder what ever happened to the live DVD idea? I think a live DVD with the soundtrack on a separate CD as a live album set would be fantastic.