Recordings were delayed, to the frustration of the band as Eldritch was still working on lyrics. Gary Marx: "He'd got far too caught up in the business and had lost his edge as a writer. We wasted weeks at a time in the studio, waiting for him to come up with a handful of lyrics. It was very painful and very expensive." A notable exception was "Marian". Eldritch, inspired by Gary Marx's original lyrics to "First and Last and Always", wrote new words to a Wayne Hussey composition which contained a few passages sung in German. "'Marian' is a very special song; it's not like any of the other songs. I wrote it in ten minutes, usually the lyrics take me up to half a year." The vocal takes proved to be time-consumingly elaborate. Marx: "After each session Andy would say, 'But is it epic?', and we'd go, 'Yeah Andy, it's great!' And he'd go back and do it again. Andy's a complete perfectionist." "We could write and record a double album in the time it took him to get the headphone mix to his liking."