The Mission - Aura (2001)

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The Mission - Aura (2001)

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There is a happy land where the Mission never went off the boil, where the desperate maneuverings of Masque and Neverland never sent them spiraling away from what they did best, and where the upheavals and evils of the past ten years never once impacted the gorgeous gleam of post-Zep atmosphere and pre-Hollywood Tolkien-esque fantasy that was the hallmark of their best (first two) albums. It is a land that has been on regular display on-stage since the band's late-'90s reformation, but Aura, a U.K. release in 2001 that finally reached America 12 months later, was its first studio manifestation – and what a joy it is. With the spirit of "Serpent's Kiss" playing around its intro guitars, and an anthemic quality that cannot be ignored, the opening "Evangeline" insists from the outset that the reborn Mission are not here to simply make up the numbers. True, its S&M theme isn't exactly the most inspired lyric Wayne Hussey has ever come up with (the title rhymes with "whiplash queen" – ouch), but ignore the words and the music washes you clean of every year that's elapsed since the golden age of "Severina," "Wasteland," and "Garden of Delight." Neither is it a one-off. Across 14 tracks (an untitled ballad is secreted at the end), Aura sounds like the greatest-hits album that never was, a succession of brilliantly conceived ghosts that reassemble all the Mission's proudest moments, then fashion something dynamically new and pure from them. True, "Cocoon" does glance in the direction of the Cure for its bassline, and "(Slave To) Love" wallows in that same discomfortingly sexually implicit trough as Masque's "Heaven Sends You." But who else than the Mission could even wonder what would happen if you conjoined Radiohead and Uriah Heep ("In Denial")? Who but they could conjure something so undeniably sappy, but achingly pristine as "Dragonfly"? And who but they would dare marry a mock-Morrissey lyric to a proto-Prodigy rhythm, and then cut it off after little more than a minute ("To Die By Your Hand")? From start to finish, it's the Mission back at the starting post, and straining to start the sprint. And, if Aura truly is the rebirth it appears to be, this time they might complete it.

~ Dave Thompson

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The Mission - Aura (2001)

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The Mission:

Formed: 1986, Leeds, England
Genres: Rock
Representative Albums: "Sum and Substance", "Salad Daze (The BBC Radio 1 Sessions)", "Resurrection: Greatest Hits"
Representative Songs: "Tower of Strength", "Wasteland", "Deliverance"

Derided by critics as pompous, melodramatic, and bombastic, the Mission, as they were known in their native U.K. (their name had to be changed in America owing to a Philadelphia R&B band with the same moniker), nonetheless attracted a core audience of goth rock fans. The Mission was formed in 1986 by guitarist/singer Wayne Hussey and bassist Craig Adams, who both left the Sisters of Mercy to do so. (Hussey had also played with the Walkie Talkies and Dead or Alive.) The two recruited Artery guitarist Simon Hinkler and former Red Lorry Yellow Lorry drummer Mick Brown and called themselves the Sisterhood, to which Sisters of Mercy leader Andrew Eldritch objected strenuously. The Mission released two successful independent singles in the U.K. and signed to Mercury in 1986. The group soon completed its debut album, God's Own Medicine, which critics lambasted as ponderous and derivative of Led Zeppelin and Yes, but the album produced several U.K. hits anyway. The band toured extensively in the U.K. and America; Adams had to return home from the latter after suffering from exhaustion. Produced by Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones, Children widened the band's audience, reaching number two on the U.K. album charts. 1990's Carved in Sand shed some of the Mission's Zep fascination for more refined songwriting. Hinkler left the band midway through the supporting tour and was eventually replaced permanently by Paul Etchells. Meanwhile, several Mission members backed Slade members Noddy Holder and Jim Lea on the Christmas charity single "Merry Xmas Everybody." By 1992, Hussey was the only original member left; following the 1994 Sum and Substance retrospective, he recorded the 1995 album Neverland with a new Mission lineup. Blue followed a year later, with the greatest-hits retrospective Resurrection appearing in fall 1999. The 2001 album Aura was followed by a world tour that slowly saw the new lineup dissolving. By the time God Is a Bullet arrived courtesy of the 2007 version of the band, Hussey was living in Brazil. He announced that the Mission would actively promote the album through early 2008, after which he would be focusing on solo work.

~ Steve Huey

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The Mission - Aura (2001)

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