More cammies than cape: a Gothic legend exits the belfry
Written: Feb 21 '09 (Updated Dec 13 '09)
Product Rating:
Pros: Pretty effing heavy for a "Gothic" band. Biting lyrics, Andy's voice.
Cons: When You Don't See Me is perhaps the blandest Eldritch song on record.
The Bottom Line: While a radical change in style from the bleakness of earlier releases, Vision Thing is still an undeniable product of the one and only Andrew W.H. Eldritch (nee Taylor)
pyfr's Full Review: Vision Thing by The Sisters of Mercy
For those who writhed at the feet of The Sisters of Mercy because of their supreme Gothiness, 1990’s Vision Thing must’ve been quite a disturbing change of pace. Gone was the haunting introspection of the first album. Banished was the melancholy romanticism of Floodland. Lying dead in a field somewhere was the trippy ghoulishness of the pre-major label days. This was Andrew Eldritch’s take on big, power chord-laced bombast rock. It’s almost like the guy discovered heavy metal in 1990 and hastily tried to work it into his game plan.
Still, Vision Thing continues to work for me all these years later. It’s witty, manly, and even sweet on occasion (Something Fast ranks up there with any of Andy’s preceding tender moments). The lyrics are less emotional and far more in the nature of social commentary than the brooding meditations found on First & Last & Always, but Eldritch is a brilliant enough lyricist to make every line he writes all drippy with brilliance and savagery. In fact, I caught something weird in Ensenada, I’ve a brother of sorts in Torquemada from Detonation Boulevard has to be the rock n’ roll couplet I’m most likely to quote when drunk on Jager. That’s real, people.
From the moment Eldritch announces the presence of twenty-five whoores in the room next door on the title track, it’s clear that this is going to be a beautifully ugly situation. Vision Thing is less of a dance floor affair than an album to which one might learn how to drive an armored vehicle. There’s more muscle in the charging Dr. Jeep or semi-hit More than there was in half the hard rock songs that came out that year. Conversely, Something Fast and acoustic strummer I Was Wrong show that Andy didn’t completely toss out subtlety to share the bed with power. Even Ribbons, one of my Sisters faves of all time, feels unconventional and heady, despite the presence of chugging mullethead rock guitars. Incoming!
For most Sisters fans, the icy croon and deviant wordplay of Eldritch likely made and makes this indispensable. Because Andrew is apparently on the G’N’R album release schedule, it’s the last proper studio effort we’ve seen for almost two decades (I was a junior in high school when this came out, for Frank’s sake!). Sure, Vision Thing isn't the tragic and ambient affair that Floodland probably led many to expect, but it’s always nice to hear that wicked rumble of a voice, no matter how pugnacious the background music.
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