Coil - Constant Shallowness Leads To Evil (Vinyl)

Description

Constant Shallowness Leads To Evil is an album by Coil, released the same year as Queens of the Circulating Library. According to the credits, "Coil were Thighpaulsandra, John Balance, & Peter Christopherson. Thanks to Simon Norris." The track names provided are "Higher Beings Command", "I Am the Green Child", "Beige", "Lowest Common Abominator", "Free Base Chakra", and "Tunnel of Goats". The track listing is rather mysterious as it only lists six tracks while 23 tracks were actually pressed on the CD. The most commonly given explanation (including that of the official archive) is that the final song title, "Tunnel of Goats", is that of an 18-track suite which is, along with the trio of tracks before it, the main musical basis of the live opus "Constant Shallowness Leads to Evil". The release is unique in Coil's catalog for several things not unusual to the band separately: It is very noisy and nearly devoid of conventional instruments and vocals. John Balance's singing appears only on "I Am the Green Child" and minimally on "Tunnel of Goats", while Tom Edwards plays marimba on the former. However, their live act prominently featured Edwards's playing and, unlike the original, the live version of "Higher Beings Command" does include vocals. The following warning appears after the track listing: "May Cause Drowsiness – Do Not Play While Driving Or Operating Machinery". In 2022, Dais Records reissued the album as a 2LP set (seven different pressings on different colours of vinyl)