bauhaus-mask lp

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Managing to expand their sound on Mask, the members of Bauhaus stretched themselves into new areas of music and performance, resulting in an album that was arguably even better tha n the band’s nearly flawless debut. More sides of the band were apparent from the get-go; opening number “Hair of the Dog,” one of the band’s best songs, starts with a double- tracked squalling guitar solo before turning into a stomping, surging flow, carefully paced by sudden silences and equally sudden returns, Murphy details cases of mental addictions in pithy phrases. The energy wasn’t all just explosive angst and despair, though; the one-two punches of “Kick in the Eye” and “In Fear of Fear” have as much hip-shaking groove and upbeat swing to them as portentous gloom (Ash’s sax skronk on the latter, as well as on the similarly sharp “Dancing,” is a particularly nice touch). Elsewhere, numerous flashes of the band’s quirky sense of humor make an appearance; perhaps most amusing is the dry spoken-word lyric beginning “Of Lillies and Remains,” as David J details a goofily grotesque situation as much Edward Gorey as Edgar Allen Poe. Add to that three of the most dramatic things the band ever recorded -- the charging, keyboard-accompanied “The Passion of Lovers,” the slow, dark fairytale-gone-wrong “Hollow Hills,” and the wracked, trudging title track, where the sudden appearance of an acoustic guitar turns a great song into a near-perfect blend of ugliness and sheer beauty -- the end result is a perfect trouncing of the sophomore-slump myth Show more