starspring
Songs You Should Be Listening To
Posts
Bauhaus was always an unknown quantity, never the sum of its parts and somehow out of time and place. There's not much point in comparing this band to the band that recorded the last studio album-musical life has lead them all through so much terrain it was bound to produce a work that bears little resemblance to anything else that came before it.
If anything, I hear snatches of all the music the members have collectively produced SINCE they split. The slinky, eliptical guitar lines of Tones On Tail merge with the psychedelic atmospherics and pop tones of Love & Rockets. These sounds bubble up underneath Peter's Soaring, shouted and singed vocal lines. They still clearly have "it".
Although the album boasts some great tunes, not everything here translates into solid songwriting. That may be as much about the speed with which it was recorded(18 days) as it is the chemistry in its current configuration. There are rough moments where instead the overlapping of expressions creates something far more intriguing.
It sounds as though there was an incident during the recording of the album which nixed them ever working together again, nor are they touring to support the album. Perhaps this final release by Bauhaus is what we have for a cap on their legacy? I guess it could have been a lot worse...
The songs themselves are very different stylistically. Moving from glam-rock stompers to evocative black dirges to delicate reverential odes. There is something here for nearly everyone in their variously attuned fan base. They decided to include "The Dog's a Vapour" for some reason, though its more like a curio, having been recorded almost a decade earlier around the time of the 1998 "Resurrection Tour".
Peter Murphy's vocals have patinaed well with age, growing rough around the edges of those high notes but the urgency of his voice remains. One thing is evident at first listen-how much their playing has evolved. Strange then that they decided to hastily record the album's 9 remaining tracks. For those with access to Itunes, there are an additional 2 tracks but these are merely live video versions of "Bela Lagosis Dead" and "Dark Entries" recorded during their 2005 Coachella Festival appearance.
As albums go, this doesn't hold together as much as I would have hoped. Of course its creation leaves little mystery as to why. Perhaps with so many strong personalities trying to co-exist, like a star going supernova, it was inevitable that the conflagration that followed consumed the band. What we are left with is not so much the void of the remains but the white heat of the afterglow from a distance. Bauhaus...Return in Black...Go Away White.
Track Listing
Well, I'm not totally sure WHEN the major labels going to suck it(thank you Kathy Griffith) but they are definitely feeling the sting in a big way already. I think the change started in the mid 90s when the huge series of mergers happened, culminating in the Seagrams conglomerate and others. It was then they seemed to begin weeding out those who weren't shifting the right amount of units. Bands and artist were getting dropped left, right and sideways-stranding quite a few well known entertainers in what may have been the peak of their career. I remember listening to Love Story by Lloyd Cole and thinking "Wow, this is so good, a career highpoint." Still, they dropped him. Now Lloyd, as much as I love his work, hasn't ever troubled the top of the charts for long nor has he sold silly amounts of albums. However he's always had a sizable following-who continue to buy whatever he puts out, myself included(Good god, buy his new album-another career highpoint-great songs...I'd do a seperate review another time-but Antidepressant is wonderful).
I think what is happening now is that that those who survived that slash and burn experience are now coming back and embracing the growing trend of the self-sustaining artist. But its going to take a while for the new model to show or develop in to the same ways that the current system has. Some of the artists now taking advantage of this new wave of self management are doing reasonably well. Its probably not all smiles to be sure-being an artist in this culture never has been, but at least there is a ray of hope that a future without the big boys is at once possible and even desirable.
I should probably post something on my take on the "indie" record scene-which is no angel either-and then get off this jag about the "industry." I really need to reveiw the new Sigur Ros dual EP.
Comments
Not exactly, but someone asked-based on my posting of the below Paul Simpson quote-if I 'hated' major record labels. I don't hate them strictly speaking-lots of artists I love and have followed for years have been on the majors-but I have also watched in horror as many other bands have been "humped and dumped" by the same labels in a way that would make a prostitute blush. A few particular artists/bands spent their entire career fighting the labels that once spent tons of cash trying to woo them only to find out once it was too late that the label in question had no intention of 'nurturing' them unless they could move 500,000 units+.
Maybe back in the day when major label albums cost a fraction of what they do now to produce, when the huge promotional budgets and the need to recoup on the backs of artists royalties didn't trump the artists even breaking even, but that was a long, long time ago.
The more I get exposed to this new model-let's call it the liberated artist model-the more I like it. Sure, it may make certain things more difficult but for the crafty, passionate artist who lives to connect his work with some larger perception those are nothing compared to the new opportunities artists have to self-publish, promote and connect with fans. So maybe you have to monitor your own myspace page-many artists do-but how much more work is that than endless unecessary visits to CD pressing plants, private party showcases and the like? Everything that has ever been out of my reach technically was in my reach by barter, trade and in some cases, free. The days of the bloated corporate rock star may be coming to a close-but thankfully they're being replaced with something leaner, meaner and a whole lot more sexier in the long run(publishing royalties anyone). Are you up for the downstroke? Luv on Ya!
Comments
I wrote so much in response to this I'm posting it as an entry in itself. See above.
My Digital Music Collection
My Trusted MOGs (2)
MOG Meter
Comments
Great review, I learned a few things I didn't know before reading it, like "The Dog's A Vapour" being a decade old song. I reviewed this album also here.