The Magic's Back In My Heart Again

Breathless is a 4-piece band comprising Dominic Appleton (vocals. keyboards), Gary Mundy (guitar), Ari Neufeld (bass) and Tristram Latimer Sayer (drums), who this year celebrate four decades together.

 

Breathless' music is variously described as dream pop, shoegaze (latterly applied), ethereal rock, psychedelic (at times) and in many ways the perfect signing to the 4AD label in the 1980s. Except that Breathless never were.

From April 1984's debut single Waterland to their most recent album, 2022's See Those Colours Fly, Breathless' releases have been on their own Tenor Vossa label.  To date, there have been eight albums, one compilation (1994) and fourteen singles/EPs. I don't (yet) own any of the albums but I have so far been able to source ten of the singles digitally.

Over And Over was a 4-track CD single in 1991, a double A-side with All That Matters Now, both songs taken from fourth album Between Happiness And Heartache. Over And Over was accompanied by an official video, directed by Damon Heath. Tristram Latimer Sayer took leave of Breathless in 1987, returning in 2011, with Martyn Watts on drums for the intervening period.

Truth be known
The magic's back in my heart again
It's sad I know
You leap up before me
Are you back now to haunt me?
Just one night when I pushed you aside
I knew what was done was done
Well, if I knew then
Just what I know now
That I'd lose you
As I couldn't tell you
I need you
I need you

 

Well, it's a funny old world
When you're too long on your own

When you fall in love
Well, in and out of love again
Well, it's wrong, wrong, wrong
I've been on my own for too long
Yes, it's wrong, wrong, wrong
To be on your own for so long

I think of you, think of you, everyday
Do you think of me, think of me, ever?
I count every day you're gone away
I count them all, I do
Over and over, over and over

Over and over, over and over

I need you

I need you

 

 

Although Breathless have never been signed to 4AD, it was there that I first heard Dominic Appleton's distinctive voice. He was one of a very few non-4AD artists to record with This Mortal Coil, contributing vocals to three songs on second album Filigree & Shadow (and one on third and final album Blood), including this beautiful cover of Tarantula, originally by Colourbox. Here's a video created in 2019 by Virgil Pink.

Wanted Too Much To Say No, No, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah

One of the greatest pair of songs ever committed to 7" vinyl? Chris Bell's single, I Am The Cosmos b/w You And Your Sister, was released in 1978 and proved to be the only post-Big Star recordings issued in his lifetime. Tragically, by the end of the year, Chris lost his life in a car accident. A posthumous album called I Am The Cosmos, compiling these and other unreleased songs, came out in 1992. 

 

As a teenager in the 1980s, I didn't have a clue about any of this. My brother one day brought home a cassette called It'll End In Tears by This Mortal Coil. I was struck by the cover image and even more so by the music within, which in turn was my introduction to the music of Tim Buckley, Roy Harper and Big Star. 

 

I bought This Mortal Coil's second album, Filigree & Shadow, and pretty much thought that was it for 4AD founder Ivo-Watts Russell's collective. In 1991, I was walking past a record shop in Perth, Western Australia and was surprised to see This Mortal Coil's logo atop a striking image of cover star Pallas Citroen's face, eyes following me as I walked past. Of course, I had to go in and have a look.

 

I didn't buy the album until I was back home in England later that year but it included covers of both sides of Chris' single. I Am The Cosmos is recreated as a duet between Deirdre Rutkowski and Dominic Appleton.

 

It's good but, discovering the original I Am The Cosmos via a freebie CD with Uncut magazine the following year (to promote the posthumous album of the same name), Chris Bell's version is unbeatable.

I didn't hear Chris' version of You And Your Sister until a few years later. It's a beautifully simple yet nuanced performance, even more so with Alex Chilton's backing vocals. But...

 

Not just because I heard it first - and repeatedly over a relatively short period of time - but This Mortal Coil's version absolutely, unequivocally nails it. And it's all down to Kim Deal's heart-wrenching lead vocal, wonderfully supported by Tanya Donnelly's harmonies. It gets me every time. 

Others have tried - and failed - to capture the magic of You And Your Sister. Whale did a frankly awful version of the song in 1995, made even worse with a misplaced (and missed-the-point) rap from Leafnuts. Thankfully, this was relegated to a B-side. Not recommended but if you really must...

 

However, whilst it again doesn't match the sheer beauty of This Mortal Coil or Chris Bell's version, there is another cover that I like, which I'm sharing here in a live version from last December because... well, just because.