*** The Hope Blister, “ . . . Smile’s OK,” 4AD.

For all practical purposes, this is the fourth installment of This Mortal Coil, a recording project whose mission is to deconstruct an enigmatic assortment of little-known, arty songs. The repertoire is particularly perverse this time around, forcing you to examine the originals under a new light (David Sylvian’s “Let the Happiness In”) and even inviting you to embrace these variations as improvements (Brian Eno’s “Spider and I”).

Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent). The albums are already released unless otherwise noted.