''God's Own Medicine'' is the debut studio album by the English

gothic rock Gothic rock (also called goth rock or simply goth) is a style of rock music that emerged from post-punk in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s. The first post-punk bands which shifted toward dark music with gothic overtones include Siouxsie an ...

band the Mission. It was released on 10 November 1986 by

Mercury Records Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. Mercury Records released ...

. The original LP version contains 10 songs. The CD and cassette versions had the songs "Blood Brother" and "Island in the Stream" added. Both had previously appeared on the "III" ("Stay with Me") single. The album peaked at number 14 on the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is the United Kingdom's industry-recognised national record chart for album, albums. Entries are ranked by sales and audio streaming. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the O ...

Background

The band had spent much of 1986 touring around Europe and had performed two radio broadcasts for the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

. In the summer of that year, they signed with

Phonogram Phonogram may refer to: * A sound recording – see Geneva Phonograms Convention * ''Phonogram'' (comics), a comic book by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie * Phonogram (linguistics), a grapheme which represents a phoneme or a combination of phon ...

after releasing two independent singles. Much of the material had featured on the tour and the band completed ''Gods Own Medicine'' within a period of four weeks. The record was produced by Tim Palmer and the Mission and recorded at Ridge Farm and Utopia Studios. Three singles were released from the album, "Stay with Me", "Wasteland" and "Severina".

Critical reception

Writing for American publication ''

Trouser Press ''Trouser Press'' was a rock and roll magazine started in New York in 1974 as a mimeographed fanzine by editor/publisher Ira Robbins, fellow fan of the Who, Dave Schulps, and Karen Rose under the name "Trans-Oceanic Trouser Press" (a reference ...

,'' Ira Robbins described the album as a "dull and insipid guitar/keyboard/string bombast", and "a horrible amalgam of

Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin were an English rock music, rock band formed in London in 1968. The band comprised vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist-keyboardist John Paul Jones (musician), John Paul Jones and drummer John Bonham. With a he ...

Yes Yes or YES may refer to: * An affirmative particle in the English language; see yes and no Education * YES Prep Public Schools, Houston, Texas, US * Young Eisner Scholars, in Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago, and Appalachia, US * Young Ep ...

and

Echo & the Bunnymen Echo & the Bunnymen are an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1978. The original line-up consisted of vocalist Ian McCulloch (singer), Ian McCulloch, guitarist Will Sergeant and bassist Les Pattinson. By 1980, Pete de Freita ...

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described it as "the marker for goth rock's invasion of the U.K. charts for a good chunk of the late '80s".

Reissue

A remastered version appeared in June 2007 with four bonus tracks, including the original intro to "Love Me to Death" (previously available only on the "Wasteland" video-cd, and as a hidden track on the

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph record, vinyl records and Compact cassette, cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a Single (music), single usually ...

of the 12" single release of "Severina") that had to be cut due to the time constraints of vinyl. Consequently, its insertion has not been taken into account in the track list of the remaster—listing the two tracks as "Love Me to Death (Original Full Length Version)"—and thus all tracks after eleven are mislabelled as being one track ahead of where they actually appear on the album. It was certified

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in the UK.

Track listing

Personnel

The Mission

* Craig Adams –

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stat ...

* Mick Brown –

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

, production *

Simon Hinkler Simon Thomas Hinkler (born 13 November 1959) is an English guitarist, keyboard player, songwriter and producer, most notable for being the lead guitarist for the rock group The Mission (band), The Mission from 1986 to 1990 and since 2011. Earl ...

–

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

s, keyboards, production * Wayne Hussey –

vocal The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound producti ...

s, guitars, production

Additional personnel

* Tim Palmer – production *

Julianne Regan Julianne Regan (born 30 June 1962) is an English/Irish singer, songwriter, and musician. She achieved success in the late 1980s and early 1990s having formed the band All About Eve. Her major role in the band was as lead singer and songwriter ...

– additional vocals * Adam Peters – string arrangements * The Leisure Process – sleeve design * Sandy Ball – sleeve design * KEV – mastering

Charts

Certifications

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:God's Own Medicine 1986 debut albums The Mission (band) albums Albums produced by Tim Palmer Mercury Records albums