First And Last And Always (album)

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First And Last And Always - Album Cover (Front)


First And Last And Always is the first studio album by The Sisters Of Mercy and was released in 1985. It reached number 14 in the UK charts.

For some comprehensive insights into the production and the various recordings, mixes, releases and pressings of First And Last And Always, we strongly recommend the Heavy Leather Blog research review All I Know For Sure: The Making of First And Last And Always by Robert Cowlin!!!

Further information can also be found @wikipedia as well as here (in German),
quite extended and offering a lot of interesting references to original sources.



This page is Work in Progress and going to be extended as soon as ever possible




Band/Recording Personnel

as credited on the inner sleeve of the gatefold LP:




This page is Work in Progress and going to be extended as soon as ever possible


Production Notes

  • Additional Photograph on Gatefold Vinyl and CD version by Tom Sheehan


Track List

Side A       Side B      
Track Durations     Track Durations    
Vinyl & Cassette / CD    *       **   2006 CD         Vinyl & Cassette / CD    *       **   2006 CD
 A1  /  1  Black Planet   4:27      4:28      4:26  B1  /  6  First And Last And Always       3:58      3:59       4:02
 A2  /  2  Walk Away   3:20      3:20      3:25  B2  /  7  Possession   4:36      4:39      4:38
 A3  /  3  No Time To Cry   3:54      4:01      4:02  B3  /  8  Nine While Nine   4:07      4:07      4:12
 A4  /  4  A Rock And A Hard Place       3:36      3:32       3:33  B4  /  9  Amphetamine Logic   4:46      4:54      4:53
 A5  /  5  Marian (Version)   5:37      5:40      5:44  B5  / 10  Some Kind Of Stranger   7:16      7:10      7:34


2006 CD Extra Tracks

Track Durations
 11  Poison Door    3:41
 12  On The Wire    4:21
 13  Blood Money    3:13
 14  Bury Me Deep    4:44
 15  Long Train    7:30
 16  Some Kind Of Stranger (Early)        8:38


Track Times

  • Official Vinyls


  • Official Cassettes (12)
   *   1985 Europe (2), Argentina, Australia, Spain ----- Europe, Poland (1992), Russia (1999)
  **   1985 ELEKTRA - US (2) / 1985 WEA - Canada (2)


  • Official CDs


  • Data Files



First And Last And Always - UK gatefold cover (front)

Releases

Original Release Notes

  • Tape Cassette: Merciful Release MR 337 C Mar 1985
  • CD (original version) WEA 2292-40616-2 1988
  • CD (Digitally Remastered in 1992): EastWest 9031-77379-2 1992
  • CD Rhino UK 5101-17579-2 2006


The album was generally available on CD from 1988 on and was first released as a remixed version in 1992. At the time, many fans felt that the 1992 CD remix was inferior to the original.

In late 2006, the CD-version was (together with Floodland and ) re-released by Rhino Records featuring the original vinyl mixes, b-sides and a demo version of Some Kind Of Stranger.

Remarks


Difference between the original and the 1992 remastered First and Last and Always CDs


Additional Notes on the Release

First and Last and Always probably has the most variations in terms of mixes of all the Sisters' releases.

The vinyl LP was originally released on gatefold vinyl, subsequent releases have standard sleeves. The Japanese release is sought after as it has different song mixes to other vinyl pressings.

The CD version was first released in 1988 and contains mixes from the Japanese and normal vinyl releases. It was reported that this was because the master tapes had been lost. 1992 saw a digitally remastered release which again had slightly different mixes. Besides the standard jewel case release the CD was also released in long box format.

The 2006 release was the first time that Poison Door (song), On The Wire and Bury Me Deep were available on CD. Blood Money had appeared earlier on the Tour Thing 91 promo CD and Long Train was featured as the b-side of Lucretia in 1988. Some Kind Of Stranger (Early) is pretty much a demo of the song, with different lyrics and a much rawer sound.