lazarus
Blue Crack Supplier
Why isn't this album getting more publicity?
No Pitchfork review, only a handful on Metacritic. This seminal band returns with its first new studio album in TWENTY-FIVE years and you wouldn't even know it. I've asked friends if they've heard it yet and I hear "Bauhaus has a new album?"
Anyway, I'm not a big goth fan, and am far from an expert on the band (more of a Love & Rockets fan over the years), but this really is top notch stuff. Sounds totally like them, but also contemporary (in a good way).
Obviously the guys sound great, as they've been playing their instruments for many years, a much tighter band than Bauhaus was, for better or worse. Murphy might not have the same range or strength, but he sounds nothing like a caricature. He's the real deal. Daniel Ash's guitar really tornadoes its way through this whole album, and it's refreshing considering how clean much of his sound was in Love and Rockets for most of their discography.
The album kicks off with Too Much 21st Century, which sounds a bit L&R-esque due to the dirty, funky shuffle (GREAT David J bass line) and backing vocals. It's about as un-Bauhaus as it gets on the album, but it works as a fresh start. The more rocking, upbeat songs are on the first half of the album, after which it delves into darker, moodier, murkier territory.
Other highlights are Undone, Endless Summer of the Damned, Saved (the most "goth" song on the album, very dramatic, but not in any kind of cartoonish fashion), Mirror Remains, and the "title" track Black Stone Heart ("Go Away White" is part of what you might call the song's chorus), which for me is the album's highlight. It's the kind of song you could only picture Bauhaus pulling off, it's totally representative of the band and also a singular creation that builds on what's come before. I can't get enough of it.
Check out Black Stone Heart on their MySpace page (along with Saved):
http://www.myspace.com/officialbauhaus
No Pitchfork review, only a handful on Metacritic. This seminal band returns with its first new studio album in TWENTY-FIVE years and you wouldn't even know it. I've asked friends if they've heard it yet and I hear "Bauhaus has a new album?"
Anyway, I'm not a big goth fan, and am far from an expert on the band (more of a Love & Rockets fan over the years), but this really is top notch stuff. Sounds totally like them, but also contemporary (in a good way).
Obviously the guys sound great, as they've been playing their instruments for many years, a much tighter band than Bauhaus was, for better or worse. Murphy might not have the same range or strength, but he sounds nothing like a caricature. He's the real deal. Daniel Ash's guitar really tornadoes its way through this whole album, and it's refreshing considering how clean much of his sound was in Love and Rockets for most of their discography.
The album kicks off with Too Much 21st Century, which sounds a bit L&R-esque due to the dirty, funky shuffle (GREAT David J bass line) and backing vocals. It's about as un-Bauhaus as it gets on the album, but it works as a fresh start. The more rocking, upbeat songs are on the first half of the album, after which it delves into darker, moodier, murkier territory.
Other highlights are Undone, Endless Summer of the Damned, Saved (the most "goth" song on the album, very dramatic, but not in any kind of cartoonish fashion), Mirror Remains, and the "title" track Black Stone Heart ("Go Away White" is part of what you might call the song's chorus), which for me is the album's highlight. It's the kind of song you could only picture Bauhaus pulling off, it's totally representative of the band and also a singular creation that builds on what's come before. I can't get enough of it.
Check out Black Stone Heart on their MySpace page (along with Saved):
http://www.myspace.com/officialbauhaus
