Absolute Best of the Sisters of Mercy
Absolute Best of the Sisters of Mercy is a Sisters of Mercy greatest hits compilation album compiled by C.Syde65 in 2013. It is an expanded version of the Essential Hits compilation album that I had compiled in 2011. Because of the additional tracks included on this compilation, it is a 3-disc compilation as opposed to a single disc compilation like Essential Hits.
This compilation album features many of my favourite Sisters of Mercy tracks. It features all the tracks that were included on my previous compilation Essential Hits along with all the tracks that were included on the 1993 greatest hits compilation album A Slight Case of Overbombing: Greatest Hits, Volume One.
12 additional tracks which I considered to be among my favourite Sisters of Mercy songs were also added to this compilation. These additional tracks are 'Poison Door', 'Blood Money', 'Black Planet', 'A Rock and a Hard Place', 'Some Kind of Stranger', 'Marian', 'Amphetamine Logic', 'Finland Red, Egypt White', 'Colours', 'I Was Wrong', 'Ribbons', and 'Something Fast'.
The 'normalise all audio files' box would be ticked when burning this compilation, so that the volume of all the tracks would be set to a standard volume. This was very useful to help the song copies remastered in the 1980's and 1990's blend in better with the louder and clearer song copies remastered in the 2000's.
The 'no pause between tracks' box would also be ticked, to prevent the Nero Express Essentials software from adding 2 second pauses between tracks, to free up more space on the CD - not that there wasn't enough space to fit 10 songs on the first disc, and 9 songs on the second and third discs anyway.
'Black Planet' was originally considered for inclusion on this compilation, but was omitted from the final version of the 2013 tracklist, as I decided I did not want to include too many tracks from the band's debut album First and Last and Always. However, given that all the tracks from the band's third album Vision Thing are included on this compilation, I eventually decided to add it to this compilation after years of debating whether I should update the compilation to include 'Black Planet', and how I was going to do it.
The copies of 'Finland Red, Egypt White', and 'You Could Be the One' that are presented on the compact disc adaption of this compilation originated from MP3 files at 128 kbps, though I later converted all the MP3 files at 128 kbps of Sisters of Mercy songs that were on my PC at the time to Wma files at 192 kbps. The Kid Jensen Session version of 'Jolene' that was featured as a bootleg is the version of the song that I included as part of this compilation.
The version of 'Floorshow' that appeared as the opening track on the first disc of the final version of the 2013 tracklist was a live version that was featured as a bootleg in 1990. The recording itself dated from 1985. Though until 2016, I mistakenly believed it to be the version that was originally released as a single in November 1982 and the Alice EP, explaining why it appeared as the opening track on the first disc of this compilation, instead of as the 2nd track on the second disc. This error was corrected in 2022, and the original single version was subsequently included on this compilation instead.
Instead of using the copies of 'Walk Away' and 'No Time to Cry' from A Slight Case of Overbombing, I used the copies from the 2006 remastered version of the British version of First and Last and Always, disregarding the fact that both albums use the same mix of both tracks. The issues with the copy of 'No Time to Cry' from A Slight Case of Overbombing is that the quality of the 1993 remaster wasn't that great.
The hiss is more prominent in the 1993 remaster of the song, unlike the 2006 remaster where the hiss has been cleaned up. Another issue with the copy of 'No Time to Cry' from A Slight Case of Overbombing is that it features a shorter fade than on the 2006 remaster of the British version of First and Last and Always, bringing the duration of the track to 3:57 instead of 4:02.
The mixes of 'No Time to Cry', 'Black Planet', 'First and Last and Always', and 'A Rock and a Hard Place' that appear on this compilation are the British mixes from the British version of First and Last and Always, rather than the Japanese mixes from the Japanese version of the album. I don't regard the Japanese mixes to be inferior to the British mixes. But I typically use the British mixes of the tracks from First and Last and Always on compilations. As I do prefer the British mixes of 'No Time to Cry' and 'A Rock and a Hard Place' over the Japanese mixes. In any case I find the British mixes to be more suitable for inclusion on compilations.
Instead of using the single edit of 'This Corrosion' and the copy of 'Dominion/Mother Russia' from A Slight Case of Overbombing, I used the album mix of 'This Corrosion' and the copy of 'Dominion/Mother Russia' from Floodland. Because both tracks fade into the next songs on Floodland which are 'Flood I' and 'Flood II' respectively, I used Adobe Audition to copy the first few seconds of those songs and insert them on the tail ends of 'This Corrosion' and 'Dominion/Mother Russia' respectively. I did this so that I could include everything of those 2 tracks that was on Floodland, disregarding the fact that they both contained the intros of 'Flood I' and 'Flood II' respectively.
Instead of using the radio edit of 'Doctor Jeep' and the copy of 'More' from A Slight Case of Overbombing, I used the album mix of 'Doctor Jeep' and the copy of 'More' from Vision Thing, disregarding the fact that the copy of 'More' is the same on both albums. While all three discs of this compilation have roughly the same number of tracks, because some of the tracks on this compilation are considerably longer than others - the longest track being 'This Corrosion' which is over 11 minutes - the second disc is more than 10 minutes longer than the third disc, and the third disc is more than 10 minutes longer than the first disc.
Disc 1
| Track | Title | Length | Year | Album | Author(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01) | Floorshow | 0:03:40 | 1982 | Some Girls Wander by Mistake | Craig Adams, Andrew Eldritch, Gary Marx |
| 02) | Jolene | 0:02:46 | 1983 | Entertainment or Death [Bootleg] | Dolly Parton |
| 03) | Body and Soul | 0:03:32 | 1984 | A Slight Case of Overbombing: Greatest Hits, Volume One | Andrew Eldritch |
| 04) | Poison Door | 0:03:41 | 1984 | First and Last and Always [2006 Compact Disc Reissue] | Andrew Eldritch, Gary Marx |
| 05) | Walk Away | 0:03:24 | 1984 | First and Last and Always [British Release] | Andrew Eldritch, Wayne Hussey |
| 06) | Blood Money | 0:03:13 | 1984 | First and Last and Always [2006 Compact Disc Reissue] | Andrew Eldritch, Wayne Hussey |
| 07) | No Time to Cry | 0:04:02 | 1984 | First and Last and Always [British Release] | Craig Adams, Andrew Eldritch, Wayne Hussey, Gary Marx |
| 08) | Black Planet | 0:04:26 | 1984 | First and Last and Always [British Release] | Andrew Eldritch, Wayne Hussey |
| 09) | First and Last and Always | 0:04:02 | 1984 | First and Last and Always [British Release] | Andrew Eldritch, Gary Marx |
| 10) | A Rock and a Hard Place | 0:03:33 | 1984 | First and Last and Always [British Release] | Andrew Eldritch, Wayne Hussey |
| 11) | Some Kind of Stranger | 0:07:34 | 1984 | First and Last and Always [British Release] | Andrew Eldritch, Gary Marx |
Disc 2
| Track | Title | Length | Year | Album | Author(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01) | Marian [version] | 0:05:44 | 1984 | First and Last and Always [British Release] | Andrew Eldritch, Wayne Hussey |
| 02) | Amphetamine Logic | 0:04:53 | 1984 | First and Last and Always [British Release] | Andrew Eldritch, Gary Marx |
| 03) | Finland Red, Egypt White | 0:08:16 | 1986 | Gift [EP] | Andrew Eldritch |
| 04) | This Corrosion | 0:11:04 | 1987 | Floodland [Compact Disc Reissue] | Andrew Eldritch |
| 05) | Colours | 0:07:18 | 1987 | Floodland [Compact Disc Reissue] | Andrew Eldritch |
| 06) | Dominion/Mother Russia [Transition] | 0:07:07 | 1987 | Floodland [Compact Disc Reissue] | Andrew Eldritch |
| 07) | Lucretia, My Reflection | 0:08:44 | 1987 | A Slight Case of Overbombing: Greatest Hits, Volume One | Andrew Eldritch |
| 08) | More | 0:08:23 | 1990 | Vision Thing | Andrew Eldritch, Jim Steinman |
| 09) | You Could Be the One | 0:03:58 | 1990 | Vision Thing [2006 Compact Disc Reissue] | Andreas Bruhn, Andrew Eldritch |
Disc 3
| Track | Title | Length | Year | Album | Author(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01) | Doctor Jeep | 0:04:41 | 1990 | Vision Thing | Andreas Bruhn, Andrew Eldritch |
| 02) | Detonation Boulevard | 0:03:50 | 1990 | A Slight Case of Overbombing: Greatest Hits, Volume One | Andreas Bruhn, Andrew Eldritch |
| 03) | I Was Wrong | 0:06:05 | 1990 | Vision Thing | Andrew Eldritch |
| 04) | Vision Thing | 0:07:34 | 1990 | A Slight Case of Overbombing: Greatest Hits, Volume One | Andrew Eldritch |
| 05) | Ribbons | 0:05:28 | 1990 | Vision Thing | Andrew Eldritch |
| 06) | Something Fast | 0:04:37 | 1990 | Vision Thing | Andrew Eldritch |
| 07) | When You Don't See Me | 0:04:54 | 1990 | Vision Thing | Andreas Bruhn, Andrew Eldritch |
| 08) | Temple of Love | 0:08:07 | 1992 | A Slight Case of Overbombing: Greatest Hits, Volume One | Andrew Eldritch |
| 09) | Under the Gun | 0:05:42 | 1993 | A Slight Case of Overbombing: Greatest Hits, Volume One | Andrew Eldritch, Billie Hughes, Roxanne Seeman |