Customer Reviews

Go Away White

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Well, after 25 years without a new album release, its no wonder the mixed reviews for the new (and apparently final) Bauhaus album. Expectations were high. I've been a Bauhaus fan for about ten years and have had their older albums for a long time and I'm familiar with how they USED to sound. I'm a music lover who loves change from artists I appreciate and Bauhaus is no different. I wouldn't have wanted Go Away White to sound like Mask or Burning From The Inside and luckily it doesn't. Go Away White sounds like a garage-rock album, but with clarity. David J's bass is thick and audible, Daniel Ash's guitars are loud and crunchy, and Kevin Haskin's drums are solid and deep. Peter Murphy is as dramatic and crooning as ever. I personally think this album rocks. It's a modern rock "n" roll album with a vintage feel and deserves to be played loud. The only track I found unecessary was the last track, which really wasn't music at all.

Bottom line, the last time this band made new music was 25 freakin' years ago, so why even bother making comparisons? This album stands on its own and I think it's a great record worth repeated listens. Its dark, rockin', and dramatic and that's the way I've always loved Bauhaus. Highlights are Adrenalin, Endless Summer Of The Damned, The Dog's A Vapour , and Saved (weird song but gooood). Fans of the Bauhaus of old owe it to themselves to check this album out. Definitely THE surprise release of 2008 and probably the last decade.

P.S. I don't know about the rest of you guys who actually bought the cd, but I got a cool sticker with mine. Enjoy.

It's been 25 years since Bauhaus released a studio record (1983's Burning from the Inside). In the intervening time, the band has been busy with vocalist Peter Murphy pursuing a solo career and the rest of the band-- guitarist Daniel Ash, bassist David J and drummer Kevin Haskins finding fame as Love & Rockets. After a handful of reunion tours (the first of which documented on Gotham) and persistent rumors of an album, "Go Away White" has finally arrived, the band's "farewell" record (yeah, we've heard that before). But like I said, it's been 25 years since these guys have gone in the studio to record new material-- goth and new wave (and contrary to popular assessment, Bauhaus straddled both camps) have run their course and spawned their children in the various alternative movements of the past 20 years and glam music had been reduced to a bunch of guys with eye liner and trashy metal riffs before collapsing.

So it's into this that Bauhaus' new album arrives, and one thing I can say-- you can't go home again. The music of Bauhaus in the late '70s and early '80s was unique, powerful and of its time. It stands on its own but one fears any effort to recapture that glory would fall flat-- mind you, it'd draw its armies of praise from the retro crowd, but in five years, it'd be a record collecting dust like other similar projects. Happily, Bauhaus did not pursue this route, instead turning out something entirely new.

This comes clear pretty much right from the start-- "Two Much 21st Century" kicks in with a modern production vibe-- bright guitars and a crisp, ringing bass sit in between a great rolling backbeat and Murphy's explosive vocal. It's a statement-- this isn't your dad's Bauhaus, if anything, it sounds like what Murphy's Unshattered should have been (I just couldn't get into that record). As the record moves on, it sounds essentially like a modern band that's really influenced by Bauhaus, admittedly sometimes this is more overt (loping goth piece "Mirror Remains") and sometimes less so ("Undone", a rambling alt-rock slice that could have come off a Jane's Addiction album but for the vocal). The album does consistently hold interest, and while it does have an occasional foray into goofy glam ("International Bulletproof Talent"), the balance of great songs such as screechy guitar driven funk rocker "Adrenalin", droning goth redux "Dog's a Vapour" (full of harmony laden vocals and a doom-driven musical cut) and post punk rocker "Black Stone Heart" (really quite the standout) carry the record straight through to the closing ambient cut "Zikir", recalling the best work in this form of the side careers of the band.

The only downside is that apparently the sessions yielded some sort of division in the band and this is being described as the band's farewell. The material sounds like it'd come alive in concert and it's a shame to hear. Nonetheless, it's great to see a Bauhaus record that has something to say.

To me, this is how Bauhaus would sound if Peter hadn't gotten sick and had completed Burning from the Inside. No Love and Rockets as we know it, no Tones on Tail, no Peter Murphy solo projects...or at least not as early as they had arrived. The boys seem to have picked up where they left off, but with 25 years worth of maturity and experience under their collective belt.

While they seem to drift a bit to somewhat familiar waters with a late 90's Love and Rockets feel to "Too Much 21st Century", every song after that gave me that same quiver in my stomach I got when I first picked up "In The Flat Field" as a college kid in the '80's. Each song is mystery to be discovered and unwound with each successive listen. Trace elements of the scars of their 25 years journey become evident to the truest of Bauhaus fans and that's ok because they've never strayed far from their roots in any of their incarnations. So here we have it. The final album. It IS Bauhaus and it's Bauhaus as they have always been and will always be.

Some will call this album brilliant just because it's Bauhaus .
Bauhaus have always been a combination of moments of complete self indulgence interspersed through some of the best songs ever .
Take away the best songs ever and that's what your left with here .
There are a few decent moments ( The Dogs A Vapour) .
But I think the individual members have had too long to follow their own sound - some of these songs sound like Love and Rockets with Pete singing .The undercurrent of menace and anger has completely gone .
Maybe being such a huge fan of their work my expectations were too high

It's impossible to think that after a 25 year absence, that Bauhaus would return to make a studio album of (almost) all new material. Sure all of the performers have had another things to do like Tones On Tail, Love & Rockets, various solo albums, and even working with Perry Farrell, but Bauhaus, as a whole, hasn't recorded since 1983's 'Burning From The Inside.' 2008's 'Go Away White' almost feels like if the four guys got together and said, "hey, what if we decided to fuse Love & Rockets, Tones On Tail, and some of Peter's later solo albums into one record with almost no traces of our work as Bauhaus 25 years ago?" I can even hear some traces of Dali's Car, an obscure Murphy/Mick Karn side project. The results are satisfying, but confusing at the same time.

The first five tracks are all guitar riff-driven glam rockers that are closer cousins to 'Kundalini Express' than to 'Double Dare'. 'Zikir' particularly sounds like something off of Murphy's album, 'Dust', with its droning almost-Dead Can Dance sound. 'Saved' is a very interesting artrock drone, catching them at their most gloomy since 'Mask', where 'Black Stone Heart' is the closest thing to Tones On Tail since, well...Tones On Tail. Lyrically, Murphy might spew out a few references to crimson spots or burning bodies, but the lyrics are definitely more lightweight than say, oh, 'Stigmata Martyr'. 'Endless Summer Of The Damned' even refers to global warming; very 2008, Pete. Soundwise, the album moves like a downward spiral, starting out with the Bowie-esque rockers and spiraling down to the atmospheric dirges ('The Dog's A Vapour' makes a reappearance after being a bonus track before, in a re-recorded form).

Overall, I still don't know if I'd consider this even as strong as any of the original albums, or even as solid as 'Express' or 'Pop' but shouldn't totally offend fans of the bigger picture of these artists. Bauhaus stalwarts who thought Love & Rockets was too poppish or Tones On Tail was too unfocused might not enjoy this newest effort as much. If I could give it 3.5, I definitely would have.

This work is an inspired piece. From the first strums to the last note, the band rediscovered themselves. The songs are better than the last two cds they did, and it ranks with Mask and In the Flat Field.

Endless Summer of the Damned should be on the list of songs new "bands" should listen to in order to see how a song should be written and performed. When the song kicks in, all four members are working as team -- and the power of rock comes through to the listener. Passion comes alive inside one while listening -- no matter what. The song has all the basics of what rock should be, but it is new and fresh. Besides the Pixies way back when, there hasn't been a proper rock song like that released until now.

Saved can move one beyond words and Peter's words are the perfect paint to the music canvas.

All the songs are great and worthy of an rock fan to buy.

To the band:
Please put pettiness aside. You guys have a gift -- share it.

A few "Bauhaus snobs" have given this new album poor reviews, and as a die hard fan of Bauhaus I was a little disappointed too during my first run listen of the first three songs. However, I have since come to love the album dearly, and throw down the gauntlet that if the nay-sayers don't appreciate this new album then I question how much they REALLY appreciated Bauhaus in the first place. Sometimes supposed "fans" don't know why they're fans. Back when Bauhaus was new they probably just knew that their friends used to also think it was cool & it helped them fit in with their chosen adolescent counterculture. However, true fans of the music and the personalities of the band will not be disappointed in this album.

My initial disappointment wasn't because the first three songs were bad, they just weren't quite like the older style Bauhaus that I got hooked on long ago. It was almost like instead of hearing Bauhaus, I was listening to Love & Rockets at their most basic & Peter Murphy just happened to be a guest singer, if that makes any sense. Again, that's not necessarily a bad thing, but the songs were not quite what I had hoped to dive right into after being deprived for so long.

So, I can understand the feelings of the negative reviewers, as probably most of us who love Bauhaus had hoped we'd be able to re-live the good ole days when the band was in their prime & it'd be just exactly like a combination of their 4 incredible studio albums from the late 70s to early 80s. Of course a lot changes in almost 3 decades, and they only had 18 days to do this one, so all things considered it is impressive that the quality of this album is as good as it is, and it is indeed Bauhaus.

And for you nostalgic fans, the good news is that despite the few songs that I would consider decent but bland, there are still plenty of elements in the album and several songs in particular that are very reminiscent of the classic style Bauhaus created "back in the day". The album has grown on me quite a bit, and I imagine even the reviewers with their ultra high standards have come to enjoy it more if they've truly given it a chance.

I believe that the album doesn't really take off until song #4, International Bullet Proof Talent. Its a catchy song and for whatever reason I dig it! Follow that up with #5 Endless Summer of the Damned, which made me feel like I was listening to A God in Alcove for the first time all over again. The Dog's a Vapour is also genius, too, with their patented low-key mystic style at first and then it breaks into a drum beat & guitar riff as lustfully pornographic as some of their classics (think In the Flat Field or Double Dare). Songs 6,7 & 8 are also good in their own right and offer more of the many splendored flavors of Bauhaus.

My biggest complaint is that they didn't write more songs & at least give us 15 or so. Song #10, Zikir, is kind of just a filler. Its pleasant to listen to, but if you're going to count that as a song then at least give us more to enjoy than just 9 1/2 songs! I guess that's all they could pull off in 18 days, which is also the other thing that is subtly missing. There's a difference in a band who has been jamming, touring, and hanging together for months & years at a time, and one who has split & had a reunion after so long. Don't get me wrong, the spirit of this album is great (like a family reunion, or hooking up with your ex- just for fun!) but they could never match the seasoning of comradery that their earlier works have when they've been separated for so long & only have 18 days to crank it out. So if that's what you were looking for, Bauhaus snobs, then my advice is to get a little proper perspective or quit being such posers.

Go Away White earns a solid 4 stars in my book & I'm delighted to see that my religious glance at the Bauhaus card when I go to the music store has finally paid off!

After the long awaited "Resurrection Tour" a decade ago (could it possibly have been that long?), the promise of new Bauhaus material beyond the haunting cover of Dead Can Dance's "Severance" (on Gotham) sadly never materialized.

Sure, "Dog's a Vapour" (from the Heavy Metal 2000 [LIMITED]) whetted the appetite of fans hungry for a scrap (which "Dog's" was... in every sense of the word [we could, however, just drop the "s" and call it crap), but a new album didn't appear likely. It would seem that Burning from the Inside would remain the official swan song from messrs Ash, Haskins, J and Murphy.

Now, 25 years after their final A&M release, fans are treated to an 18 day "spontaneous" session (as Peter Murphy would call it) by a briefly reunited Bauhaus from 2006 that results in the recently released GO AWAY WHITE.

Beginning with the almost perfect "Too Much 21st Century," an art-rock pop gem that showcases everything that was, and is the best of bauhaus (the groove created by Daniel Ash's minimalist guitar, David J's strangely funky and slightly jarring bassline, and Kevin Haskin's stripped down kit is just too good for words), GO AWAY WHITE shows great promise.

Songs like "International Belletproof Talent" and "Endless Summer of the Damned" are evidence of a bandmates having fun again, taking the best of everything learned from solo projects, and re-energizing a sound that was, and still is, uniquely Bauhaus' own. The progenitors of goth (a genre that took shape in the late 70s, but a title that would have been new to the band itself at a time when they were most vital) are once again making music influenced by the glam of T. Rex, the punk of the Pistols and the Damned, and the art rock of David Bowie and Roxy Music, but, embarassingly, for a group of musicians this talented, it is only the aforementioned tracks that stand out as stellar.

Should GO AWAY WHITE have been released as an EP with "Too Much 21st Century," "Endless Summer of the Damned" and "International Belletproof Talent" as the only tracks, the angel that graces the cover of the album would truly be leading us to some sonic promised land where dark things decadently dance and everyone can wear black and pretend they're nocturnal immortals all over again.

But the spontaneity of this brief reunion also results in the overindulgence of songs like "Saved," "Mirror Remains," and "Zikir." As an "album" WHITE is a mixed bag of songs that you will not only skip over on repeated listens, but finding yourself getting angry with, knowing that 18 days in the studio could certainly have resulted in much more than the usually spot-on Peter Murphy doing a really bad Peter Murphy impression (in multiple overdubs at that!). Perhaps too much is expected because so much time has passed, but a better producer could have put the brakes on this uneven ride and perhaps shaped a true "return to form" as REM has recently done with the career-revitalizing Accelerate.

For fans, GO AWAY WHITE is essential, but flawed.

For newcomers, steer clear, and go find yourself a copy of In the Flat Field.

Well Done not medium rare. This is one of my top picks for 2008, simply wonderful. The first two tracks follow in the old tradition of what I have always loved and could not be a better surprise after all these years. The other tracks feel more like Peter played the Piper and stole too much of the show, however that is why he is a Godhead. And the Go Away White Track is just pure gold. The range, the style, the production quality, the talent that pulls something so daring as this off, and does it so well. This is all I ever wanted and more. If you don't get this than you just don't get anything. Go Away White.

When a band with a loyal fanbase reunites, it is virtually impossible for it to escape a heavy burden of expectation from its fans. Many expect the band to be just the same as before; others want to see the band be similar to how it was, but only "somehow better"....In either case, the band is in a horrible trap: if it replicates the sound and atmosphere of its old records, some will slag it off as being frozen in time, an oldies act, or irrelevant with nothing new to say. If they branch out and try a new direction, even if in small baby-steps, fans will criticize them for being different and not as good as before, forgetting who they were, selling out, etc. etc.

Bauhaus were so unique and influential in their heyday, and they have such a devoted cult-like fan base and reputation, that they are saddled with more than a crushing load of expectation anytime they get together; and such expectations certainly have been brought to bear on this record. In my view, it is both similar and different from their older work and it also reflects and incorporates bits of the work the members have done in the intervening 25 years (Love and Rockets and Murphy's solo work. This makes it varied and interested, though not quite as extreme and experimental as some of their earlier more far-out stuff.

Let's face it: many of their earlier albums were quite good, but they also were spotty; bits of brilliance with a real clunker or flawed experiment of two between the good bits. "Go Away White" is much more consistent from beginning to end, perhaps reflecting the maturity of the players (though they still seem unable to get along for long periods of time, as evidenced by their re-break-up).

So similarities to "old" Bauhaus: Murphy's co0mmanding and melodramatic vocals, Ash's extremely textured guitar work, and the solid yet inventive rhythm section of the Haskins brothers.

In my view, Ash is a very interesting figure in that, while he can certainly play guitar "straight" and with upfront punkish intensity, he more often than not chooses the more oblique approach, reducing his guitar at times to generate whirs and chimes, scrapes and shimmering scrims of noise or tone. He did this in the old days too, but continues to find ways to coax new sounds from the commonplace rock guitar and make it fit/work for the song. Listen carefully and you'll hear all this.....

David J and Kevin Haskins are as solid as always, but now also seem to play with a newfound flexibility and subtlety, slightly shifting their accents and emphasis while still locking into a groove.

Leave your expectations about the old Bauhaus behind and you'll enjoy this record on its own merits much more.....