Top 10 Gothic Rock Albums
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Gothic is the musical movement that never existed, apart from the fertile imaginations of a few people and the need for an umbrella term to wrap up like a cape all the different groups they loved. All the major groups connected with the Gothic scene – Bauhaus, Siouxsie And The Banshees, The Cure, even Wayne Hussey of The Mission – have all disputed the use of the term “goth” to describe their music.
And one could argue that it was the public that created Goth, because ultimately any band adopted by the Gothic crowd has become Gothic by association, whether their music matches the bill or not. Psychobilly (a punk version of rockabilly), for example, was not very Gothic, but several psychobilly groups (The Cramps being the most obvious) were adopted by the Gothic crowd.
The music in this guide to the best albums is therefore “classical” Gothic, that is to say, unmistakably Gothic music. And, remember, it’s gothic because gothics say it is.
Siouxsie and the Banshees – Juju (Geffen, 1981)
One of the albums that defined goth. Bassist Steve Severin later revealed that the album’s schlocky horror show themes – present in songs such as Voodoo doll, Halloween and Night watch – were inspired by The Cramps and were meant to be ironic.
Hardly anyone took them that way back then and instead wallowed in on the Banshees’ best album. In the light, bewitched and Sin in my heart shaken, while Night watch and Arab knights slipped seductively, with Siouxsie earning her stripes as a goth pinup / dominatrix. Soon all gothic girls would look like this.
The Cult – Dreamtime (Beggars Banquet, 1984)
First there was the Southern Death Cult, then the Death Cult and then⦠that. Ian Astbury and Billy Duffy made genre-defining debuts – cover design, Native American references, live performances (and early copies of Dream time came with a great free live album), all of them made The Cult the perfect gothic rock band.
Spirit walker sent a thousand independent nightclubs into chicken dancing frenzies, while A flower in the desert is the forgotten gem. You could say the band got better – smoother, finding their place at the “rock” end of the goth-rock spectrum – but The Cult has never been more original or important than on Dream time.
Chair for Lulu – Chair for Lulu (Polydor, 1984)
Bat cave regulars Flesh For Lulu brought a warmer rock sound to goth – not to them those doomy vocal archetypes or that crisp, icy goth-branded guitar sound – and it’s their only album that could really be considered goth.
Instead, they covered the Rolling Stones’ Puzzle, black choristers to give Restless a soul to add to his boast of the foot on the screen, and wrote a goth hymn of assault in Underground. Then, just to confuse their audience further, they added the black-hearted country closer Heavy angel.
The Damned – Phantasmagoria (MCA, 1985)
Even in the heyday of punk, singer Dave Vanian – a former gravedigger – dressed like a vampire, so with at least part of the look in place, it wasn’t surprising that gothic elements started to creep in. infiltrate the music of The Damned in the mid-1980s. With Captain Sensible after a solo “career”, Dave’s influence took hold and the band delivered this commercially successful album.
Rat Scabies power station drumming on opener Street of dreams to Vanian’s lush blackmail Shadow of love, and the inspired story of the comic book heroes of Sinister Diabolical, Phantasmagoria is gothic pop at its best.
The Mission – God’s Own Medicine (Mercury, 1986)
A breakaway group from the Sisters Of Mercy (Wayne Hussey, guitar / vocals, and Craig Adams, bass, with Artery guitarist Simon Hinkler and Red Lorry Yellow Lorry drummer Mick Brown), The Mission had an audience ready and waiting. . Their first two singles, Snake kiss and Garden of Earthly Delights, displayed a more accessible motorhome version of the Sisters’ sepulchral rock.
God’s own medicine hammered out the gothic elements, added layers of 12-string ringtones and, on songs like the (otherwise charming) Love me to death, lyrics that could have been written by Dick Emery: ‘Love flows / Love is free / My love invades you‘.
The Cure – Standing on a Beach / Looking at the Sea (Fiction, 1986)
The Cure were punks (or post-punks), Robert Smith’s whiny voice reminiscent of Buzzcock Pete Shelley, but a trio of dark and intense albums – Faith, seventeen seconds and Pornography – and Smith’s second job as a guitarist for Siouxsie & The Banshees meant his band was adopted by the goths.
Standing on a beach LP / cassette (the CD version was called Looking out to sea) is a collection of singles and shows the band in their most accessible form, with their contagious pop (Lovecats, let’s go to bed), completing their dark side (A forest, 10:15 am Saturday evening, etc).
The Sisters of Mercy – Floodland (Elektra, 1987)
The representative of the sisters has been carved through their first 12 inches – classics like Alice and Temple of love – and their first album, 1985’s Ffirst and last and always, was arguably more important for the goth than Flood lands, which came as the “movement” collapsed. But it was without a doubt their greatest moment – the album that fully realized Andrew Eldritch’s grand vision.
From the opening similar to a hymn Dominion / Mother Russia to the dark fate of This corrosion, and with two songs produced by Bat out of hell writer Jim Steinman, Flood lands was the epic sound of the Sisters dancing on the bones of the 80s.
Les Crampes – Off The Bone (Capitol, 1987)
Lovers of obscure 50s rock’n’roll and schlocky B horror films, the Cramps looted material from their rockabilly heroes and delivered their own take on choice tracks such as Goo Goo Muck, surfer bird and an amplified version of Hazel Adkins already mental She said.
Melancholic norms Lonely city and Fever became just plain creepy, as gothic pinup guitarist Poison Ivy slashed classic riffs to add to Lux Interior’s messy lyrics about garbage collectors and human flies. The result was captured on this best of their first tricks: a trashy, stomping psychobilly with a shit-eating smile and a hand on the zipper.
Bauhaus – Crackle (Banquet des mendiants, 1998)
Probably the first truly Gothic group, Bauhaus – like all of the groups on these pages – hated the term applied to them. Understandable, really. The Bauhaus pioneered the sounds, images, lyrical themes and fashions that a legion of other groups turned into clichés after them.
This collection of singles brings together all of their best moments, including their epic debut release The death of Bela Lugosi (never included on an album), dark pop classics from the 80s such as she is in the parties, the destabilizing The passion of lovers, the wire cover of David Bowie’s Ziggy stardust, and perhaps the only funky goth piece, Kick in the eye.
Cocteau Twins – Stars and Topsoil (4AD, 2000)
A best-of that follows the Cocteaus from their first incarnation as aspiring sub-Siouxsie to one of the most original and inspiring groups of the time, it’s a great starting point for non- insiders.
Elizabeth Fraser asserts herself as the best singer of her generation – cooing, soaring, soothing, with an ecstatic voice that constantly rings on the verge of orgasm, while Robin Guthrie is a much underrated guitarist (in her use of textures and effects, he was an influence on – and an unlikely friend of – Dave Navarro from Jane’s Addiction). Includes most favorites from Lazy Calm to Iceblink Luck.
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