Review Revue: This Mortal Coil - Filigree and Shadow

Filigree & Shadow was the second album released by the loose 4AD collective This Mortal Coil. As with the third album, which I covered here eight years ago, label head Ivo Watts-Russel teamed up with some current 4AD artists (including members of Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance, and The Wolfgang Press) to cover songs by a diverse array of artists including Judy Collins, Tim Buckley, and Talking Heads. For the record (so to speak), I still love this idea and think more people should do it.

Note: A couple of the labels on this one were quite faded and difficult to read. Please bear with me, as the feisty discussion here is worth following all the way through.

"The second 4AD collaborative album, this time representing more of their new signees. Music [illegible] covers (Tim Buckley, Van Morrison, Talking Heads, etc.), plus lots of ambient interludes. It's all good stuff, 4AD style and pretty quiet. But hey, watch out, songs segue together w/o exception."

"Greatness and Perfection!"

"This is one of the most unmitigated balls of A.O.R. fluff I've heard in a long time. 1/2 of this would plug right into KJR. God. Maudlin, self indulgent, fey, pasty and flaccid. There are 3 decent cuts on here, which suprises [sic] me. 'Kill Bowie,' you say, Jonathan, well, this pretentiously cover bearing 'hip' label could use some heavy duty abuse."

"Thank you sir. That what I thought. Whew."

"Inch Blue skips!"

"Intro to 'I Want to Live.'"

"Sounds better on CD."

"Title is appropos [sic]"

"OK, so this is an ego gratification project. But, I still appreciate the [unintelligible] These artists are giving renewed exposure to such minor [illegible] as Chilton & Buckley [illegible]"

"Oh, come on, it's not that bad, Art. Pretentious, but taken at face value, 's OK. I really like the cover of Buckley's 'Morning Glory.' Let's face it guys, this is good."

"Let's not + say we did."