Floodland (Deluxe Version)

The Sisters of Mercy were a volatile group during the best of times, but singer Andrew Eldritch also had a drive to keep his future intact. While the earlier works of the group were often loud and abrasive, for the follow-up to their brilliant debut album, First and Last and Always, Eldritch hired Meat Loaf producer Jim Steinman to bulk up and smooth over the production on two songs and used producer Larry Alexander and a ton of keyboards to make up for any lost members. The Gun Club’s Patricia Morrison was seen as a perfect foil. Where Eldritch had formerly disparaged any notion that his group was ‘Goth,” with Floodland, he calmly accepted his fate and delivered the kind of dark and foreboding material his audience craved. From the opening “Medley” through tunes such as “Flood 1,” “Flood II,” “Lucretia My Reflection” and the epic “This Corrosion,” the Sisters of Mercy became the leaders in a genre that had few contenders.