Sisters Of Mercy - Vision Thing

SISTERS OF MERCY

Vision Thing

Remember the Sisters of Mercy? Well, they are sort of back with the long awaited follow up to 1987’s Floodland album, with their new disc Vision Thing. I say “sort of” because singer/songwriter Andrew Eldritch has once again disposed of the other members of The Sisters of Mercy and brought together a completely different line up of Sisters. The new line up consists of Tim Bricheno and Andrew Bruhn on guitars and Tony James (of Generation X and Sigue Sigue Sputnik fame) on bass. Doktor Avalanche remains as the source of the drums. 

Another reason I say “sort of” is that the goth sound they have cultivated on their previous two albums is gone , replaced by their new Rawk N Roll, Dude sound. This is very depressing.

One thing I must say about the album is that it was refreshing to hear an album with “strong” language without a single Parental Advisory sticker on it. It was thrilling in that respect!

The music itself borders on the “pop metal teens go out for a few beers and chase skirts” brand of rock and roll. There are three notable exceptions: 1) the first single “More” (of course, why else would it be a single?), 2) the masterful “Detonation Boulevard”, and 3) the haunting “Ribbons”. 

What happened to the atmospheric music and profound lyrics which made Sisters of Mercy an icon in the gothic/industrial music scene. Instead, they expect us to settle for lyrics such as these from “Doctor Jeep”:

“Everybody shouts on I Love Lucy/ PeeWee reads the evening news/ A pre-owned song or a second hand uzi/ Everybody’s got a job to lose/ Here comes the golden oldies/ Here comes the Hizbollah/ Business men from South Miami/ Humming AOR.”

Come on! Even Debbie Gibson could do better than that!

Anyway, on the upside of things, I must say that the cover art is great and the three aforementioned songs would make it worth the price of the tape for Sister’s fans. Otherwise Vision Thing is the death of a great band!