Customer Reviews

Burning from the Inside

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

People sometimes criticize this album for its misses, and yes there are a couple. However the strengths greatly outweigh them. Others also are annoyed that the circumstances surrounding the band's breakup are clearly evident in the music and give it an air of inconsistency. Maybe, but it also makes the album an interesting and essential historical artifact for fans. The remnants of Murphy's sometimes jarring performance art style (this is most clear on "Antonin Artaud" - as it should be if you know anything about the subject) stand in opposition to the nervy yet upbeat Love & Rockets pop of other tracks; "Slice of Life" would have been great on an early L&R record. "King Volcano" is a Goth-folk dirge that strangely is oft played in clubs; perhaps you've heard it and wondered why it was played in a club and why it's so mystifyingly popular. "Who Killed Mr. Moonlight" is a nostalgic tune that feels like it comes straight off of 7th Dream of Teenage Heaven; it contains the enigmatic lyric, "Extracting wasps from stings in flight". Despite the obvious divergence of paths within the bands, they managed one song where the pith of Bauhaus all comes together. That song is the nearly perfect "She's in Parties", a dark, jaded look into the life and mind of a coddled starlet; I could argue that this is the best song they ever made.

Looking back at this album after many years, it should be remembered as a quality collection of songs, some brilliant, and a chronicle of the disintegration of a towering band.

This is my favourite Bauhaus work, although musically it's more like a collection of individual songs than an album. Previous Bauhaus albums were cohesive almost to the point of monotony - if you weren't in the right mood, you couldn't listen to them. This one, on the other hand, covers a whole range of styles, themes and emotions. The extended version is really amazing - although it may be harder to find, it's well worth it. Fantastic album.

First things first: I am a big Bauhaus and Love and Rockets fan. Having said that I have to warn you, this does not really sound like a Bauhaus album - not all of it at least. (not that Bauhaus really had a trademark sound... ) There are some classic Bauhaus songs, like Burning from the inside, She's in Parties and Antonin Artaud, but then there are songs like Slice of life and Who killed Mr. Moonlight that aren't even sung by Murphy and, evidently, don't sound very much like Bauhaus. Not that they're bad songs, they're quite good actually. Anyway, this has some of Bauhaus' most beautiful songs (King Volcano) and the only happy Bauhaus song I have ever heard (and I've heard them all): Hope. It's a really beautiful record and probably a more accesible one than Mask or The Sky's gone out.

This is their best and darkest album. The title track is brilliant, along with 'She's in Parties'. That said, the entire album is gloomy and wonderful. I've heard it said that this is Bauhaus' most commercial album. I don't think so. If anything, it's them at their most uncommercial and 'Goth', if you will. As good as 'Bela Lugosi's Dead' was, the songs on this album are far superior. Unfortunately, this album is woefully overlooked because of the splintering of the group and the supposed inconsistency of styles. I disagree. This is a classic-right up there with The Cure's 'Pornography', the Banhees' 'Juju', and Joy Division's 'Closer'.

There is a 3 second guitar crescendo and the it burst out in to a electronic utopia cloaked by a dark shadow defining Bauhaus' classic sound. It may be true that Bauhaus' older albums are better however contrary to most people i belive this album is not to far behind. I once played it for my dad and he said "This sounds like what i hear when i get stoned." I laughed however listeing to the album, it puts me in a dazed state of amazement. Antonin Artaud drives you to a point where you feel like your head will explode but u love it. Then King Volcano presents a Dead Can Dance style song in a comical three four time beat showin giving it even more of a goth feel as though three four times was an often heard in medieval music. Who Killed Mr.Moonlight calms u down into a dark shadow of the room while the simple piano shows so much emotion and the saxaphone in the back adds to the sadness preojected. Slice of Life brings you back with its acoustic fury and finally Hope slowly draws you out and leaves you shaking in the complete amazment of the complete dark genious shown by the best goth/art rock band ever. I only wish i was this into them 3 years ago when they recorded Gotham in Hammerstien Ballroom. A friend of mine described it as though spirtits had flooded the room. This CD is a must have for anyone weather their a fan of punk, metal, goth rock, or even new wave. This album will change how you listen to music.

Burning from the inside is a mixed bag for me. Though I rated it 5 stars, I'm not saying it as a combined work is their best ever. It does however have a progressive sound that captivated my ear with She's in Parties and made me a diehard Bauhaus fan (who then worked backwards when forming his collection). I recomend this CD to anyone, a Bauhaus fan or otherwise. For the beginning it may be particularly good as it is probably their most accessable album. With a solid start with this album, you might just find your ear has been trained well enough to move onto other, older Bauhaus sounds and truly appreciate them too:)

The fact that "She's in Parties" is on this album is indicative of how incredibly creative this band was, even when they were falling apart. Some really good cuts all the way around, but all things considered, it is at the bottom of my Bauhaus list (which you means you should buy it because it is awesome, but their others are even better).

What one gets out of this, Bauhaus's final album, largely depends on where one is coming from. If you've listened to this first album, Mask, or the Sky's Gone Out, you're probably going to be in for a shock. Peter Murphy's influence was declining in the band, and unlike earlier albums, some songs aren't sung by him.

The quality that distinguishes this from other Bauhaus works is its obsession with its own "exoticness" of goth, (She's in Parties) and its own melancholia. On earlier albums, Bauhaus was content to just be itself, without trying too hard. Even the album cover looks a bit contrived compared to the originality of the previous artwork. Compare it to the spectacular cover of the first album.

Bauhaus here starts to sound pretentious (Slice of Life), more than innovative. On earlier songs, like Double Dare, Bela Lugosi's Dead, Mask, Departure, and Exquisite Corpse, the emphasis was on the innovative use of feedback, instrumentation, echo, and literary style lyrics, all in the service of making a definite statement, from which an atmosphere would emerge of its own accord.

While there are good moments on this record (King Volcano, Antonin Artaud), the focus is on evoking an atmosphere alone, and it's too thin by itself with nothing to latch onto. Even the title track is built around a repeated small drum riff that sounds like a bland chorus. It just wasn't innovative anymore.

If you add in the fact of the overwhelming melancholy and nostalgia (Who Killed Mr. Moonlight) the effect totally disappears. Whereas older Bauhaus albums reflected a rage and singularity of purpose in exploring the depths of darkness, this album is mired in melancholia, and tends towards simplistic depressive nihilism. Hence the rise of Love and Rockets. To be fair, Murphy didn't kick out of this mire either until "Love Hysteria."

Listen, but keep the older records around more, unless you're a Bauhaus fanatic.

And in a good way. One of my favorites from Bauhaus. The creative spark flashes often here. Ingenious.

Timeless music.

If you prefered the Beatles' Abby Road to Rubber Soul, if you prefered the Police's Syncronicity to Reggatta de Blanc, you will enjoy this for the same reasons; tension and discord at the end of a great band's flight, making for a wildly dynamic album that's full of surprises. Previous albums wallowed in redundant, sloppy, sanctimonious goth sillyness and far too many cuts that were simply self-indulgent wastes of the listeners' time. In this Burning From the Inside, every cut is a master-stroke and no two are similar. It ranges from profound to wacky to haunting to beautiful (though I could apply more adjectives than would fit in this space). The likes of Bela Legosi and Passion of Lovers has been left behind here, though their punk asthetics are still present in earnest except that here, they are applied in strategic highlights rather than in a clumsy wash. Of the other Bauhaus albmus, I only bother with a few songs from each but from Burning...I relish every song.