ALBUM REVIEWS
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ALBUM REVIEWS |
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Bauhaus
GO AWAY WHITE COOKING VINYL 3.03.08 @www.vanguard-online.co.uk When I was around eight or nine years old Bauhaus were busy inventing Goth. As I was too pre-occupied with running around playing football and climbing trees the event passed me by. However, by my mid teens I did have a phase of being ‘into’ Goth (much the same way that every adolescent male must have a Heavy Metal phase – it’s the law) Apart from listening to a bit of Sisters of Mercy and Fields of The Nephilim (I know, I know…) I wasn’t really dedicated enough and quickly grew out of it. I just couldn’t be bothered to wear black all the time. This new album from the reformed Bauhaus is their final swansong – they promptly spilt up again before its release. And what have they left us with for a final fling? Well it starts off kind of OK on the first few tracks. Cutting guitar riffs, rumbling bass and Peter Murphy’s long-winded drawl all combining to provide a relatively engaging din. Murphy tends to over-dramatise the vocals in a similar style to Bowie’s less subtle moments. So far so so-so; but it gets pretty awful pretty quickly around the middle section of the album. Track 5 ‘Endless Summer of The Damned’ is an onomatopoeic title if ever I’ve heard one; and the histrionics of the vocals really start to grate from here on in. Murphy really draws out the words to try to am-dram it up as much as possible – single syllables take an age to get through. Give or take the odd doomily patted tom-tom drum; track 6 ‘Saved’ has hardly any instrumentation at all to take your mind off the excruciating vocal delivery. The album continues in this vein until you are freed from the misery with the final crescendo of ‘Zikir’. It’s like watching a bad sixth form school play about a Goth-rock band. This has to be a shame really as I’m sure this band must be held in some reverence by the Goth hierarchy; but this comeback album does their legacy no favours at all. Why do bands do that? Why not just let it lie? www.bauhausmusik.com |