Customer Reviews

Sky's Gone Out

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The usual gripe that people have with this album is that Bauhaus seem to be a little more self-indulgent than on previous albums. Admittedly, this album does take more patience than the first two releases, but it can be a very rewarding listen when given a chance. Songs like Third Uncle, Silent Hedges, Spirit and All We Ever Wanted Was Everything are familiar faces to most, but the album as a whole is a gem. The Three Shadows trilogy is a very dark reflection on something that has to do with fish, urine, Oedipus complexes, and fresh pink babies. A very disturbing and surreal experince. In The Night is a pretty heavy song for Bauhaus and Swing The Heartache boasts some of the strangest music Bauhaus has ever produced. The experimental Exquisite Corpse displays the band's abstract approach to songwriting and a few absurd yet wonderful lyrical passages. The aforementioned Silent Hedges has to be one of the best songs ever written about the onset of insanity and Third Uncle stomps. Spirit will make you want to jump up on the bar with a mug of ale in hand and shout "We love our audience!" again and again. Definitely recommended to anybody disgusted with the current woeful state of modern music.

What dark cliche has NOT been leveled at these gothic godfathers of sinister shade? This album is the artistic masterpiece of the band as a full unit. It is not as gritty rusty razor blade edged as their pre-album singles, nor their debut "In the Falt Field"; it isn't as creepy as the boogey-man on tiptoes of "Mask"; and not the perfection of solo efforts-combined-to-a-band that "Burning From Inside" was (they lapsed into different drug states by that point); this album begins with the amputee-themed burn-me-again Eno cover of "Third Uncle", and simply doesn't let up for the duration of the side (side? yes, Virginia, this was an "album"). With features like Peter's voices melting black into "His wrist onto the razor slides", and the suicide-scenes of "Swing the Heartache", and a finale of the side, their ironic mantra "We love our audience" from "Spirit". Flip the side (ah, the wonders of digital technology, no sides...), and you as a listener are taken gloriously through a world of dim light and heavy shadow. Factory town seems kelidoscopic after the grim "Three Shadows". Sacrifical infants and drinking tins of piss end with the longing melancholy of "All we ever wanted was everything". `bout sums it up. Ah, yes, "Exqusite Corpse". Like the literary game of the same name, this song seems composed in secections, leaving the listener reeling by the time the band hits their jammin' stride with reggeta le bauhaus. And the added tracks on the import disc is like the tasty clean up after the fix. Music evolved a bit with this album, showing that not only psychedelic art rock can create such perfect soundscapes that draw in anyone with ears. This is Gothic music at some of its best, by its best. If goth and psychedelia were wed in some unholy matrimony, Bauhaus would be playing the wedding march. And it would be "Third Uncle". Save "Three Shadows" for the kids...

While the whole may off to some as rather inconsistent, I have to say this album is a great testament to what Bauhaus were capable of and all the possibilities of their career.
On this, we have the lightening glam-tinged rock of "third uncle" (a cover of brian eno btw), the melancholy drama of "the three shadows," or "all we ever wanted," and the bizarre experimentalism that marked just about all their work (you really must listen to the last piece).
Over all, it is an interesting album with what appears to be a theme running throughout. But then, I could be wrong. Rather sad that they were so heavily criticized in their own day. Even worse they are rarely given the credit they deserve for influencing so many and remaining so relevant. This is some great stuff.

I think Bauhaus(the band) became one with Bauhaus(the art school/movement) when they released The Sky's Gone Out. Tracks like "Spirit" and "The Three Shadows(I-III)" bring to mind Kurt Weill, Weimar Culture and German cabarets. The rest of the album is a smart amalgam of post-punk expressionism and good old rock n roll. Their cover of Eno's "Third Uncle" is pricless -- highly energetic and manic...a great way to start off an album such as this. "Silent Hedges" and "In The Night" take the disonant vampiric drama concepts of In The Flat Field and meld them with the ultra-slick production of Mask. And to prove that Bauhaus is not just a gloomy and detatched goth band(but a truly original and innovative rock n roll band), they serve up two diverse tracks: "All We Ever Wanted Was Everything", a rather tender and endearing ballad, and "Exquisite Corpse", a classic slice of the band's quirky sense of humour. All in all, this a great, well-balance album. It's got everything you look for when you go looking for Bauhaus.

Lots of people say this album is the worst Bauhaus album, possibly because they play it once and then throw it away. The first time I heard this, I did not like it. I listened to it a few more times, and realized this album is spectacular. This is definately one of their weirder releases, lyrically and musically. Songs like "All we ever wanted was everything," and "Spirit" are very melodic with Peter Murphy's famous vocals on top of accoustic guitars and soft drums. Other ones like "In the Night," and "Third Uncle," are faster and more "out of control". It's too bad not everyone realizes just how great this album is.

The Sky's Gone Out is probably Bauhaus' best, though least appreciated album. The boys clearly reached their experimental peak in these recordings, a great sense of gothic elegance (not eldridge-esque sophista-spook, but a very clean, almost Miranda Sex Garden type classical/rock feel) Silent Hedges, Spirit, and the Three Shadows are total classics. (The Brian Eno cover on track 1 is quite good also) Alot of the other songs are a bit awkward (the ska riffs on exqisite corpse), but all in all, it's a wonderful album.

Before this album Bauhaus basically set the tone for what Gothic music was supposed to look and sound like with their first album "In the Flat Field", and then changed up styles with the spooky dance album "Mask". Leaving a listener such as myself wondering "where will they go from Mask?" this album definitely turned out to be Bauhaus' creative watermark.
This album basically bridges the gaps found between "In the Flat Field" and "Mask" while also blending the styles of some of the rarities you can find on their BBC sessions ("Swing the Heartache") and shows definite progression in song writing ability. The first half of "Sky's Gone Out" gives you a taste of older styles of Bauhaus song structure which have been updated and improved upon by this point in the game. However, the second half of this album is where the real fun begins. Starting off with "The Three Shadows Pt. 1" the album builds (almost in a prog. rock style) up to the breaking point which leads into one of the albums many keepers "All We Ever Wanted Was Everything" which is followed by one of the more brilliant examples of Bauhaus at their creative best.
Even if you're not a fan of anything else in Bauhaus' (or anything in any Goth band's) discography, "Sky's Gone Out" is an album that I believe anyone can appreciate if they have an appreciation for a more ecclectic taste in musicianship.
"Sky's Gone Out" is essential if you're a fan of Bauhaus, and is definitely worth checking out if you're new to the group.

Key Tracks: "In the Night", "Spirit", "All We Ever Wanted Was Everything", "Exquisite Corpse"

If you like dark/brooding goth music, and you don't already own this, you might need a visit to the shrink, pronto. ;)

This album is REAL goth, made by real goths, not some people standing around in yarn hair pretending to be GOTH at a stupid music festival full of "industrials" born after 1986.

This rocks.

I first purchased this album on tape when I was 15, back in 1992. Of course, I was born too late- however, I remember listening to it for the first time and being completely floored. Peter's vocals are amazing, as in everything he sings. I'd never been so fascinated and moved by a band before. The lyrics to "In the Night" run through my head still. I find it unfortunate that more people are not familiar with Bauhaus, rather, self-absorbed "spookies" worship the band in an exclusive, cult manner, acting like they're privy to some big secret. C'mon! It's GREAT music! Everybody, try listening to Bauhaus!

"the Sky's Gone Out" is a classic- it will endure. It made waves in the early 80s, as it did me in the early 90s, now, I"m a blond ponytail and polo shirt law student who will forever love listening to Bauhaus.

lots of people say that this band started goth but don't buy into all that without hearing this band for yourself. i remember as a kid seeing reading Thrasher magazine and seeing skaters wearing Bauhaus t-shirts. well, that was enough for me to go check them out. i bought "Bela Legosi's Dead" on cassette and played it endlessly. i played it endlessly not because i liked it; but because i couldn't understand it and i had to keep listening o it again and again. eventually, it all started to sink in...the rhythms, the mood, the strange numbness of it all.
"The Sky's Gone Out" captures the band in perhaps, their most daring creative point in their musical career. alot of Bauhaus fans aren't too keen on this album. why? well.,,perhaps because the first song (a cover of Brain Eno's "Third Uncle") is so fast and rocking? admitingly, it's a rather strange way for a Bauhaus cd to start off...but it's a thrilling first song. once you get to the second song, the brilliant "Silent Hedges" you may feel like you're in more familiar territory. with the creaking guitar ghostly echoing and semi-spooky singing. as the disc goes on, many more faces are revealed, there's the Bauhaus stage show ("Spirit"), the very very creepy and downright psychotic Bauhaus (the entire three parts of "The Three Shadows" trilogy) , the tender Bauhaus ("All We Ever Wanted Was Everything"..which contains one of the Murphy's strangest and most haunting lyrics: "get up, eat jelly...") and the confused Bauhaus (the final cut "Exquisite Corpse" which even seems to contain a reggae passage(?)). so there is quite alot here to divulge and if it all sounds like a bit of a panoramic mess, well, it is...but a bloody good ride from start to finish.