The Mission – Singles As & Bs

On September 29th The Mission are due to release a new compilation album –  “Singles A’s & B’s” via Universal Music Catalogue. As the name suggests, it’s a collection of their singles that reached the charts (15 of them) and includes both the A and the B sides.  It’s a double album with 36 tracks in total including some previously unreleased edits.  The singles were all released between 1986 and 1994.
Wayne Hussey and Craig Adams left The Sisters Of Mercy to form The Mission in late 1985 and quickly released two independent singles while touring with The Cult, then in June 1986 released their first single after signing with Phonogram, following it up later that year with their first album.  At the height of their commercial success they played seven sold-out consecutive shows at the Astoria Theatre in London, headlined Reading Festival twice, and played with U2, The Cure and Robert Plant, as well as having two Top Ten albums.

Ok I’d have loved this to be an album of new material, but this is still a great album.  Most fans will have a lot of the songs in their collections – but probably only on albums unless they have the original vinyl singles.  Released many years ago, these singles are now hard to find, so there’s bound to be stuff here that many fans don’t have.  I’m particularly pleased since I had several of the singles on vinyl but they got lost many years ago, so now I can get the material back in my collection (albeit on a double CD rather than the original vinyl)

Singles A’s & B’s will be released on 29th September 2015

Track Listing:

Disc: 1 (A sides)

1. Serpent’s Kiss
2. Garden of Delight (7″ edit)
3. Like a Hurricane (7″ edit)
4. Stay With Me (radio edit – commercially unreleased)
5. Wasteland (7″ edit)
6. Severina (Radio edit)
7. Tower of Strength (radio edit – commercially unreleased)
8. Beyond the Pale (7″ edit)
9. Kingdom Come (unreleased single)
10. Butterfly On a Wheel (Euro version edit – commercially unreleased)
11. Deliverance (radio edit – commercially unreleased)
12. Into the Blue (7″ edit)
13. Hands Across the Ocean
14. Never Again (7″ edit)
15. Like a Child Again (single remix)
16. Shades of Green (single remix)
17. Tower of Strength (East India Trans Cairo Mix)
18. Afterglow (7″ edit Olympic mix)

Disc: 2 (B sides)

1. Wake (RSV) (7″ B-side)
2. Naked and Savage(12″ B-side)
3. The Crystal Ocean (short version) (12″ B-side)
4. Blood Brother (7″ B-side)
5. Shelter from the Storm (Live – edited version)
6. Tomorrow Never Knows (7″ B-side)
7. Fabienne (7″ B (7″ B-side)-side)
8. Breathe (vocal) (7″ B-side)
9. ForEverMore (12″ B-side)
10. The Grip of Disease (7″ B-side)
11. Mr. Pleasant (7″ B-side)
12. Bird of Passage (7″ B-side)
13. Amelia (7″ B-side)
14. Love (7″ B-side)
15. Beautiful Chaos (7″ B-side)
16. All Tangled Up in You (7″ B-side)
17. You Make Me Breathe (The Barn Mix) (7″ B-side)
18. Sour-puss (Glamour Puss Mix) (7″ B-side)