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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great rock record, March 25, 2008
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.
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22 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Proof you can't go home again, but then... why would you want to?, March 5, 2008
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.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
It's as though Peter never got sick..., March 6, 2008
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.
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