By Dylan McClorey

Back in July, I went through a bit of a rough patch. It happened to all of us at various stages during lockdown, and we all deal with this feeling in different ways. I have always listened to music as an escape but on occasion, when I am feeling especially down, I don’t want to associate any of the music I like with a sad point in my life. I was on the train going from Carlow to Dublin and I decided to try and find some new music, so I started making a playlist. About twenty minutes into doing this, I stumbled across a band I had never heard of before called the Cocteau Twins and something immediately hit me. 

The lead singer had what is still the most magical voice I have ever heard, and the almost dreamlike musical arrangements that accompanied the vocals made me forget all about the worries that were looming over me. It sounds cheesy, but we all have that experience with different songs. It could be a throwback song you hear that reminds you of a night out, or an upbeat pop song that makes you want to have a little boogie, but there are those moments where you hear something and your mind just goes to a different place, and this is what happened to me on the train. I’m sure if you look up this band, you will think I am being pretentious as fuck, and I totally get why, but this isn’t about my love of that band, it is instead about the record label they were signed to-- 4AD, and some incredibly impressive albums that the co-founder of the label produced in the 80s and early 90s. Hopefully you can find a song from this that can help you forget all about your own sadness.

Ivo Watts-Russell, the aforementioned co-founder of 4AD, began a collaborative project with the artists he had signed to his label. He used a rotating cast of vocalists and musicians to produce three albums under the collaborative name of ‘This Mortal Coil’. The songs were a mix of both covers of forgotten songs, and originals that stayed true to the label's haunting and ethereal signature sound at the time.

Kangaroo

class=" image-slide-anchor content-fill " >

class=" image-slide-anchor content-fill " >

block-yui_3_17_2_1_1612286312712_56954 .sqs-gallery-block-grid .sqs-gallery-design-grid { margin-right: -20px; } #block-yui_3_17_2_1_1612286312712_56954 .sqs-gallery-block-grid .sqs-gallery-design-grid-slide .margin-wrapper { margin-right: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; }

Kangaroo was a song originally by American rock band Big Star. The song featured on their third album ‘Third/Sister Lovers’, which was released in 1978. The band did not attain commercial success with their first two albums (even though both have gone on to be regarded as two of the best rock albums of all time) and their third album shows us the deterioration of the group and the declining mental state of lead singer Alex Chilton. ‘Kangaroo’ was the eighth song on the album and tells us the story of someone's passionate and instantaneous attraction to a stranger that they see. The lyrics are minimal, and the accompaniment slowly grows in intensity as the song goes on. There is something quite haunting about the original song in the way it is performed, especially when the band's commercial failure and troubles behind the scenes are taken into account. 

‘It’ll End In Tears’ is the first studio album by This Mortal Coil, which was released in 1984. The first song on the album is a cover of Big Star’s ‘Kangaroo’. The song was interpreted by singer Cindy Sharp of Cindytalk and bass guitarist Simon Raymonde of the Cocteau Twins. The pair’s version brings the signature sound of the 4AD label to the already chilling Big Star song and demonstrates how powerful and successful this project was at the time. Listening to the two tracks, you can really tell that both Sharp and Raymonde wanted to do the original song justice while giving the listener a whole new experience. 

Big Star re-released ‘Third/Sister Lovers’ in 1992 and featured a “thank you” to This Mortal Coil in the acknowledgements. ‘Third/Sister Lovers’ has since gone on to become a cult album, and was even featured in Rolling Stone magazine’s "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list. 

You and Your Sister

class=" image-slide-anchor content-fill " >

class=" image-slide-anchor content-fill " >

block-yui_3_17_2_1_1612286312712_79257 .sqs-gallery-block-grid .sqs-gallery-design-grid { margin-right: -20px; } #block-yui_3_17_2_1_1612286312712_79257 .sqs-gallery-block-grid .sqs-gallery-design-grid-slide .margin-wrapper { margin-right: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; }

‘I Am The Cosmos’ was the only solo album ever released by musician Chris Bell. Chris was a member of Big Star and left the band following their first album’s commercial failure in 1972. Chris co-wrote most of the songs on Big Star’s first record ‘#1 Record’. His exit from the band was also in part due to his deep personal issues and drug problems. His solo album was recorded over the space of three years in the mid-1970s but would not be released until 1992 - almost a decade and a half after his death in 1978. However, in 1978 Chris released his only single, which featured a B-side song called ‘You and Your Sister’. The song is about a man who has fallen in love with a girl, but her sister does not think he is good enough for her. The forgotten love song demonstrates how talented Chris was and his impact on the sound of Big Star.

‘Blood’ was the third and final album released by This Mortal Coil. The sixth song on the record is a cover of ‘You and Your Sister’ which was interpreted by Kim Deal and Tanya Donnelly. Kim Deal was the bassist and co-vocalist of rock band Pixies; Tanya Donnelly was co-vocalist and songwriter of rock band Throwing Muses. These two women on the 4AD label came together in 1989 to begin a side-project called The Breeders

Kim Deal has stated that Chris Bell was a huge influence on the Pixies, and the duo’s re-recording of this unknown love song with a simple harmony and accompaniment leaves us with a bittersweet feeling. Both Big Star and Chris Bell's music was not appreciated until after his death in 1978, and he would never truly understand the impact that he had on an entire generation of songwriters. 

Morning Glory

class=" image-slide-anchor content-fill " >

class=" image-slide-anchor content-fill " >

block-yui_3_17_2_1_1612286312712_92214 .sqs-gallery-block-grid .sqs-gallery-design-grid { margin-right: -20px; } #block-yui_3_17_2_1_1612286312712_92214 .sqs-gallery-block-grid .sqs-gallery-design-grid-slide .margin-wrapper { margin-right: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; }

Tim Buckley's second album ‘Goodbye and Hello’ was released in 1967. Unlike Big Star and Chris Bell’s delayed success, Tim Buckley was quite successful during his career. The last song on the album is titled ‘Morning Glory’. The meaning of this song has been interpreted in many ways, but often people have taken the lyrics as a way to describe Buckley’s inner demons appearing in his art. Eight years after the song's release, Buckley died at the age of 28 from a heroin and morphine overdose

‘Filigree & Shadow’ was the second studio album by This Mortal Coil and was released in 1986. The tenth track on the album is a cover of ‘Morning Glory’ that was interpreted by Deirdre and Louise Rutkowski. The Rutkowski sisters did not achieve a high level of fame like the other artists I’ve written about. They had a short lived band together called Sunset Gun, but Ivo Watts-Russell saw potential in the sisters and got them involved in his second collaborative project with his 4AD artists. Their cover of ‘Morning Glory’ is a personal highlight of mine on this second album, and retells the story written by Buckley in a way that makes it sound like a folktale with the iconic 4AD sound.

It is odd how we can find an escape in music, especially when the artists themselves often use their music as a way to express their own demons. These albums and the music that inspired them manage to turn these often sad stories into an escape for the listener.