I still believe in POLL but God no longer believes in me: The Mission - God's Own Medicine poll

Moulding Shapes, no shame to POLL: Bauhaus - In the Flat Field poll
Dead Can Dance - A Passage in Time (Comp for albums 2 - 5) poll
Fields of the Nephilim - Revelations (a compilation album) poll

This was going to be New Model Army but they aren't really Goth, I also dropped a few others including the Sisterhood. After Fields of the Nephilim who are accused of Sisters of Mercy clones (I feel debunked in last poll). I settled on the Mission who are two offspring of the Sisters. Not sure if this is Goth either but they are part of the scene. This always reminded me more of U2 than Goth, Alex in NYC corrected me once and said more Bunnymen. I also dropped UK as I read ILMs Mission thread and he demanded to drop it, so I'll honor that request.

Such an artifact. On several levels.

I knew this was a heavy lift. I haven't listened to this album since probably the early 90s and I last played them about 20 years ago. But that was Children and left a lot to be desired. I did love this album with all my heart at one time. I have resisted polling it for 15+ years on this board but this block gave me an opportunity to finally do it.

This always reminded me more of U2 than Goth, Alex in NYC corrected me once and said more Bunnymen

Patti Smith's 'Dancing Barefoot' is really the roots of their sound imo, i didn't actually hear the original until many years later but instantly had an OMG IT'S THE MISSION moment. They did actually cover it pretty early on too (it's on the b-side of the 'Garden of Delight' 12").

Anyway, i was into their first few singles when I was a teen who absolutely adored 'First & Last & Always', but i can't really say i've got much use for them now. Wayne Hussey does seem to be a bit creepy whenever i've heard him interviewed so that doesn't help matters (lots of nudge-nudge references to sexual activity with young fans, ugh) and even in the 80s he looked like a fool. I will always have an undying love of 'Severina' though, love the folk rock thing that Julianne Regan's voice brings to it, so that gets my vote

just realised that means that in these polls i've voted for two songs in a row that contain the word 'moonchild' in their lyrics

might have to change my name

Other dodgy goth bands that i was into in this era - the Bolshoi, Gene Loves Jezebel, Balaam & The Angel (still kind of like the first two tbh)

Me too for the Bolshoi and especially Gene Loves Jezebel as they kept showing up as the opening band for the band’s I was seeing Ike New Order and Echo.

Never read an interview with Wayne that I remember but have heard about his creepy behavior. Probably another reason why I never polled them before along with being terrified on how dated it will sound.

Big fan of the Bolshoi because they have roots in Trowbridge (the music's good too). Gonna be potentially boring here and go for Wasteland; I like other Mission albums a bit more.

I ended up watching some Channel 5 'chat show disasters' clip show a month ago and it had Wayne Hussey being drunk and unmanageable on The James Whale Radio Show on there. Which was a real obscure one to pick up and get whoever to laugh at.

Wow haven’t listened to this in forever. I actually saw them touring this, they opened for the Psychedelic Furs. I’ll need to listen just to remember most of the songs.

Other dodgy goth bands that i was into in this era - the Bolshoi, Gene Loves Jezebel

I actually just recently picked up the 5 disc box sets that Beggars Banquet put together for The Bolshoi and GLJ to replace some old cassettes and fill out my collection. Still love a lot of that stuff.

Re: The Mission — as far as I’m concerned all you need is the U.S. edition of The First Chapter and the Tower of Strength 12”. Never could get into them beyond that.

What I remember of The First Chapter is a bunch of cover songs.

Here is a Sisters of Mercy demo for the abandoned second album Left on Mission and Revenge. Written by Wayne Hussey:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O47y9NszeK4

There is also this version of "Dance on Glass" with different lyrics to the same song titled in this poll:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIHq3m0ir1E

Tower of Strength is my favourite Mission song easily but the album I've become most familiar with (and only very recently) is Masque. Something I put in another thread in the summer:

Another possible post-Achtung Baby I'm only just listening to for the first time right now: the Mission's Masque. Dance beats, rhythmic electronics, sporadic distorted vocals, cool producer, all the usual trappings make themselves known, mostly before the halfway mark. Generally it's like the opposite of the overall thread - a 'dark' bad lightening up a bit. Especially with the 'jazzy' indiepop ditty, followed by the Eastern-flavoured novelty and the fiddle-laden Wonder Stuff pastiche, all in the middle. Later songs (especially "You Make Me Breathe") go for chillout percussion but sometimes bizarrely squared by late 80s sophisti-pop sax (one song goes "don't need no Primal Scream", and "I'm Comin' Down" these songs aren't). Not sure the songwriting's usually quite up to the occasion, but it's a nice-sounding album and "Until There's Another Sunrise" is lovely, sometimes almost Saint Etienne-ish in its airy way without actually sounding like them (those echoed synthpads at the end, again with the sax, do contribute to an atmosphere that is probably closer than, say, "Moments in Love", to what a lot of dull vaporwave producers were chasing).

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

There is also this version of "Dance on Glass" with different lyrics to the same song titled in this poll:

First time hearing this, but this is actually SOM's "Black Planet" with different lyrics.

Much like Nick B I was on board for the first couple of singles in post-Sisters glow (although I was already growing bored of Husseyisms by the time FALAA came out) and those early shows were a blast. But Stay With Me was appalling and I never got back on board. All Von's claims about Waynes big book of clever words seemed to be laid bare.

(In adjacent news I am toying with going to a festival next year that features Balaam, Rose of Avalanche, Salvation, Skeletal Family, Ghost Dance and Ausgang. Or whatever passes for them these days. God help me.)

I've never really listened to the Mission - I think I heard a couple of their songs when I was a teenager and didn't like them, but this would've been several years after their heyday probably. I did like a song by them on a John Peel Festive Fifty playlist someone had made, which turned out to be their first single Serpent's Kiss, so maybe I would like this particular album, and not their later stuff, although I'm probably not rushing to confirm that

I am a fan of the Bolshoi, Salvation and Skeletal Family though!

Ended up voting for "Blood Brother" because he is screaming this:

We kissed that ever-faithful moon
Astbury your love

Yes, dedicated to Ian Astbury of the Cult.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Damn, never spotted the deadline and was planning to listen today. Suspect I would have chosen Blood Brother from memory, and tied things.

don't think I voted for this. I played this a lot when i was a 16 yo goth, but its now pretty clear that this is more patchouli U2 than Sisters - I think Wasteland is probably the only song I would still tolerate

This band will only ever make me think of clouds of confetti swirling around a shaky human pyramid on the dancefloor of a student union in Yorkshire, probably Leeds