The Fatima Mansions - Three EPs

The Fatima Mansions - Nite Flights EP / 1000% single (CD 1) / Popemobile EP

Here are three fairly hard to find EPs collected all in one place. Nite Flights includes a somewhat commercial but fine and faithful take on The Walker Brothers' song alongside a remix of said song, a Suicide cover ("Diamonds, Fur Coat, Champagne"), and most importantly the B-side "As I Washed the Blood Off," which goes from soft to loud in the same manner of Mansions classics like "A Walk in the Woods" and "Angel's Delight." 1000% includes the title cut alongside a complete industrial reworking of the song – replete with screamier re-recorded vocals from Cathal Coughlan – and a pretty brutal take on Leonard Cohen's "Paper Thin Hotel." The Popemobile EP was only released as a promotional item in the States and collects a random but excellent smattering of tracks. You get the then-current "Popemobile to Paraguay" alongside one of the B-sides to "The Loyaliser" (the jungle-tinged "Gary Numan's Porsche") and the previously unreleased "Sleep of the Just." The EP additionally comes with two selections from 1992 with less tinny sound quality: Valhalla Avenue's "Evil Man" appears here, as does the spiteful version on Bryan Adams' "(Everything I Do) I Do It For You" that provided the Mansions with their lone de facto Top Ten UK hit, even if it mainly banked on being included with "Suicide is Painless" as done by Manic Street Preachers.