Posted: 01 Jan 1970, 01:00
reproduced from the Dominion milaing list with kind permission of the author 
----- Original Message -----
From: George Carless <xxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxx.xxx>
To: dominion@toybox.twisted.org.uk
Sent: Sunday, March 3, 2002 12:32 PM
Subject: [Dominion] FALAA Chronology
I was listening to First and Last and Always the other night, and the thought struck me that there appears to be a very deliberate sequence of tracks on the album.. Now, obviously all albums are pieced together according to some kind of plan, but often it seems that "what sounds good" is the main concern, as well as dealing with issues of where the singles' replaced on the record, etc. - and I'd thought this to have been the case with FALAA. Indeed, it's difficult to think of a better way of beginning the album than with Black Planet, or of a better way of ending it than SKOS.
However, and I've not really thought this through a great deal, there seems to be a little more to it than that. I suppose the entire album is centred around the one theme: Von's first true tragic love. And, though I don't find all of the lyrics especially transparent, I suppose the album can roughly be seen as: "boy sings goth songs -> boy meets girl -> boy loses girl -> boy takes drugs and womanises as way with dealing with loss". And, shallow reading that it is, Floodland dealt with womanising and sex (it's certainly a more mature album than FALAA), and with Vision Thing Eldritch became middle aged.
I don't know enough about when each song was written, and I can't be bothered to look into when things were first debuted live and all of that. However, Black Planet "feels" early; there's not a lot to it, and I'm not really sure what it's "about" (although that's nothing too new). I guess in many ways it's just a prototypical Sisters song: drugs, the bomb, and the aesthetics of it all. Come "Walk Away", though, and it's already about the girl - and it's already a typically neurotic Eldritch. Interestingly, though, there's a certain amount of hope in the final lyrics: when removed from that voice and the music and the angst, there's the suggestion that everything *might just* be all right. Just given the opportunity, Eldritch might "clear her mind so she won't have to go". (I really quite like the weather/mood thing that's going on here, even if it is something of a cliche.)
So, "No Time To Cry". In a way, I think it continues directly on from Walk Away: although there's stuff to worry about and to be concerned with, he'd just prefer not to - or not to open up. And nothing's new in "A Rock and a Hard Place"; Eldritch hasn't opened up, and everything's still "out of sight"; the "[cause and] effect" of the "devil may care" attitude are predictable, but the motions're played out anyhow. And lo, boy loses girl. And then, oh, suddenly he needs her back. Marian. And then it's back to the egotism, and "First and Last and Always".
Possession.. is interesting. Difficult to work out: the emphasis keeps shifting. Is Von using or being abused? Who's possessing whom? The whole song's disturbed and disturbing - the emotional vampirism, the self-destruction, the suggestion that there's not a lot at the core of things.. [actually, as a quick aside, I think that "Under The Gun" has a lot more to do with the FALAA album than most people give it credit for... the whole "house folding" idea, the "tower/moon/gun" thing (where I think the FALAA logo can be seen as all three), etc.. ]
And then, of course, Nine While Nine. I love it, everyone loves it.. and again, it seems to progress very neatly and quickly on from Possession: the elements of obsessiveness, the isolation, the "knowing no other friend". And,like all the other songs, it's never entirely clear who's leaving whom, who's responsible, etc. It's all *very damned goth*, of course, but in the best possible way. Like a czech movie.
And then it's on to the Eldritch who, in many ways, has prevailed ever since: the drug taking, the nihilism, the self-destructiveness, the shifting towards a less immediately emotionally involved form of love. And, ultimately, SKOS. I'm still not really sure whether it really *is* _entirely_ Von's "love every woman" song, or whether the girl herself isn't sneaking back in there, whether in actuality or in AE's mind - the "yes I believe in what we had" certainly suggests it. But it's definitely a more cynical (or realistic) Eldritch, who doesn't want to be hurt (or perhaps, to hurt) again; who doesn't want to hear another love song. And so to Floodland..
I apologise that this is all rather rushed, incoherent, and probably downright incorrect. There may be no freedom of interpretation, but we can only try. And I apologise to all those who find it ridiculous and trainspotterish; I can't blame you - but I find it all very fascinating, very touching, and part of why I love the Sisters. So there.
--George