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.


Bauhaus' Last but Still Ingenius   February 14, 2004
 5 out of 5 found this review helpful

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.


Bauhaus or solo projects   May 12, 2000
 3 out of 3 found this review helpful

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.


Swan Song   January 25, 2001
 3 out of 3 found this review helpful

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.


My review...   January 14, 2005
 3 out of 9 found this review helpful

This is my favorite record by the old school gothic band, Bauhaus. Lots of people will disagree with me, those people being in the "purist" camp. It has been told many times over how this is an album of splinters worked together into a larger picture (clever album art). The band was fragmenting at that point and as such the lead vocalist (Peter Murphy) had a much smaller part on this one. However, I feel that is a GOOD thing.

The vocals of Peter Murphy are certainly an acquired taste. They sound like a haunted cartoon voice, like a spectral, punk rock version of Daffy Duck. I personally wish that guitarist Daniel Ash had done the vocals for more of their songs - he just sounds more like a genuine goth rocker. Such is the case with the final album, having Ash and co. taking the lead while Murphy took a backseat in the production.

The truly nice thing is that even when Murphy appears his vocals have gone through a noticeable improvement. Instead of the Daffy Duck impression (okay so Honeymoon Croon he's quacking away but otherwise) he actually sounds menacing and gothic for once. On Antonin Artaud he shatters walls with a repeating scream. On the album's title track he truly sounds somber and tormented. It's a nice change.

Today, the legacy lives on. Nine Inch Nails owes a huge debt to the artful chaos of old school gothic bands like this. Trent Reznor has repeatedly acknowledged his influences as being Bauhaus, This Mortal Coil and, armed with his kitchen sink production, Prince. Give this album a try and take a journey back to the old days when punk rockers, goth rockers, new wavers and metalheads all were contending for supremecy.