Heartland

... Vision Thing was released. So, how are you passing the time, waiting for the next one to arrive?

Wow. That does not seem that long ago. An odd album. Remember really liking about half at the time but my appreciation for it has grown over the years - mainly due to the live performances and in particular those post the VT era

It's weird looking back because although I'm sure Floodland sold more copies, during this Vision Thing period, The Sisters seemed everywhere much more. At least that's my perception of it and I'll be the first to admit me memory isn't....er....something or other. It could be because I actually prefer Vision Thing to Floodland (sorry). It's such a shame how things turned out as, IMO, with the way Brit Pop took over in the 90s TSOM would've been perfectly placed to be the antithesis of all that.

A perfect album, so underrated from many people
I remember the first day it came out and left school just to be one of the first to hear it
The record store that i had bought VT don't exist anymore
Also remember 3 of my school mates that were with me that day and have years to meet them
Anyway lots of memories and let's no forget in that album are the only slow songs that Sisters play in their concerts
Happy Anniversary VT

...and it feels like only yesterday. NO apologies – in my mind it's a truly amazing album with some of the best songs they have recorded so far – I say so far, as hope supposedly is the last thing to die... Either way, I will continue to live in hope, remembering Bowie's masterful return and just having watched the new brilliant West Wing – all the new songs from the past year makes me believe that Von actually will make good on his promise and give us "More"

Although I was forewarned about what to expect, it still came as a bit of a shock. I did enjoy it though, at least for the first three tracks - VT is a classic opener, Ribbons is classic Sisters, and Det Blvd is just a good groovy sleazy tune. I found the next three, Something Fast, WYDSM, Dr Jeep, to be considerably weaker, and by the time I got to Dr Jeep I'd definitely had enough. More, I already knew. I Was Wrong is a strong closer. And that was it, was it really so short?

For a few years I went through a phase of it being my favourite Sisters album. Floodland had been my gateway, and by the time VT came out I'd caught up on a good chunk of the older stuff. I enjoyed VT because it was new and shiny, and that 1-2-3 whammy of the first three tracks was unbeatable.

These days I've mostly gone back to my initial impression. Dr Jeep is probably the most turgid and limp thing they've ever done, but if you exclude that middle stretch there's a cracking 5-track EP hidden inside the album.

I haven't listened to the full thing in years, and the other lingering impression that remains is that it's very very short.

I’d agree with almost all of that.

I'm a Floodland chap all the way. Maybe just because it's the first thing I heard (to be more specific, I remember hearing the baseline of Lucretia at the age of 13 and thinking...Oh.My.God. Maybe I don't need to be listening to Erasure any more). But to me, that's the one all the way. I think it's the album with the best lyrics, which is where it's really at for me. And I think it's the one where the production really allows it to be the record it was meant to be (whereas the production on the other two doesn't, really).

It occurs to me that I very rarely listen to VT. I love Ribbons, but I prefer the live version from the WYDSM single. It sounds like Ragnarok. I like the stupidity of More. Something Fast and I Was Wrong are really good songs, but they don't feel like The Sisters to me. The rest I don't feel any urge to listen to again. The album feels like a joke that wore off after a while. It was a nice point to make, but, for a band that only released three proper albums, I'd MUCH rather have had a straight album where Eldritch just did what he wanted. I actually prefer to listen to Gift, which, like Floodland, was really trying to do something different. We can only dream of the record Eldritch could have made had he stuck with the Gift / Floodland trajectory - that is, if he had trusted himself.

I think I'm odd as WYDSM is the track I remember most from the album. On first listening it seemed the only one that had a hint of the arched eyebrow of the old lyrics.

Nowadays it's mainly Floodland or SGWBM that get played when the mood takes.

Strange that this anniversary has approached and passed with almost no fanfare. No 30th anniversary boxed set, no "The Making Of..." classic album documentary. But for many Sisters fans around the world, particularly in Latin America where the goth torch still flickers, this is THE Sisters album. Having gradually lapsed after the release of the unfathomable Body and Soul, Vision Thing and the subsequent return to proper live gigs as a genuine band, plus the regular thrill of UTR dropping onto the doormat resulted in a rebirth of my TSOM obsession. The opening two tracks were as great a start to an album I had heard since In The Flat Field, and like @Swinnow, for me WYDSM saw Von back to his punning and most oblique best form lyrically. Yes, there was plenty of filler on VT, but which TSOM release (bar the 82/83 "golden run" of singles) didn't feature at least one duff track?

Still my favourite Sisters album. at his best lyrically. Yeah the music sometimes strays into rock parody but intelligent rock parody when lyrics added. Isn't that what the Sisters at the beginning started out with the intention to be? For me VT is the culmination of that. One of the finest and most accurate political albums going. Tell me when you look at the US (and sadly parts of Europe these days) you don't think VT is a perfect summation of an increasingly autocratic world. And I always thought that 'in a bar that's always closing, in a world where people shout' just about sums up our internet age...

The problem as I see it with the "ironic rock-god posturing" is this:

If you f*ck a goat ironically, you're still f*cking a goat.

markfiend wrote: ↑26 Oct 2020, 10:23 The problem as I see it with the "ironic rock-god posturing" is this:

If you f*ck a goat ironically, you're still f*cking a goat.

I was going to point out that a sheep would be more appropriate for the 'fair' city of Leeds but I then remembered their time spent out east at the end of the line in lonely old Driffield on the Wolds.

"Sufficiently advanced parody is indistinguishable from the real thing".

In the case of Vision Thing that certainly rings true. When it's good it's very very good, but the weaker moments do approach too close to being actual 2D cartoon rock rather than a knowing pisstake.

Maybe Ben Gunn had it right all along? Obviously I don't think so, and so much of what came after would have been sadly missed, but maybe he did touch on something accurate enough about what Von was sometimes capable of doing.

mh wrote: ↑27 Oct 2020, 09:02 "Sufficiently advanced parody is indistinguishable from the real thing".

In the case of Vision Thing that certainly rings true. When it's good it's very very good, but the weaker moments do approach too close to being actual 2D cartoon rock rather than a knowing pisstake.

Maybe Ben Gunn had it right all along? Obviously I don't think so, and so much of what came after would have been sadly missed, but maybe he did touch on something accurate enough about what Von was sometimes capable of doing.

You certainly could be the one

I was inspired to blog on this odd one out of the three - which now means the only album I haven't covered is my just-favourite, Floodland!

timsinister wrote: ↑27 Oct 2020, 15:17 I was inspired to blog on this odd one out of the three - which now means the only album I haven't covered is my just-favourite, Floodland!

"Bassist Tony Adams"



My arseland, arseland, arseland
My arseland, arseland, arseland

Flip's sake, thanks for the catch MH. No idea what happened there!

Hang on, are you saying Tony Adams didn't actually record any bass parts or do anything in the studio?

This is like Floodland all over again!

I'd heard he was great at holding the back line together.

Maybe he was part of the tech crew then.

timsinister wrote: ↑28 Oct 2020, 13:36 Flip's sake, thanks for the catch MH. No idea what happened there!

Oh, I just assumed it was a deliberate error to check who had actually read it!