Bauhaus

The Bauhaus reunions of 1998 and 2005 were never expected to generate a new album, but here the band are with their fifth studio release, coming a mere 25 years after their last, 1983’s Burning From the Inside. There’s no denying the band’s influence, still heard regularly in today’s crop of ’80s pillaging acts, and of course, their birthing of goth, which is why Go Away White is welcomed with such reverence. However, it doesn’t take long to hear how irrelevant this band have become in today’s world. Kicking off with the tinny "Too Much 21st Century,” Bauhaus never come close to the inspiration of cuts like "She’s In Parties” or "Bela Lugosi’s Dead,” which forever immortalised them. Peter Murphy is more desperate than ever to inhabit Ziggy Stardust’s guise, coming off like a sad old bogeyman trying to relive his glory days. Love & Rockets, I mean, David J, Daniel Ash and Kevin Haskins don’t do much to support Murphy either, throwing him some embarrassingly retro grooves and chopping punk riffs that the band may have founded themselves, though Bauhaus circa 2008 won’t convince you of that. It’s not until "The Dog’s A Vapour,” the second to last track, that we get any evidence that this is the band that made our skin crawl on stage in The Hunger. But even the sinister nebula that rises from Ash’s screeching licks and Murphy’s dying caterwaul, as well as "Zikir,” the subsequent closing funeral march, come too little too late. I feel like I’m being too hard on them but Bauhaus are legends despite the fact that they were never a consistent band during their original five-year tenure as goth monarchs. And sadly for anyone expecting it, Bauhaus have yet to deliver that classic album. Considering they called it quits prior to Go Away White’s release, I’m thinking it’s just never going to come for them now.