Track Listing

1. Too Much 21st Century
2. Adrenaline
3. Undone
4. International Bullet Proof Talent
5. Endless Summer Of The Damned
6. Saved
7. Mirror Remains
8. Black Stone Heart
9. Dog's A Vapour
10. Zikir

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #19077 in Music
• Released on: 2008-03-03
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

More Hit than Miss
I suppose everybody has a band that they consider to be "theirs" and Bauhaus were most definitely "mine"! After seeing Bauhaus on Top of the Pops performing She's In Parties I bought the cassette of Burning From the Inside and everything changed for me and my taste in music. Sod's Law, the band split up a couple of months after I got what was then their last studio album. After bumping in to a seasoned Bauhaus gig veteran on holiday at this time I soon realised my knowledge was woefully limited to the one album and decided to try out their back catalogue. There isn't a single poor Bauhaus album and each one sounds different from the ones before. If Go Away White is your only experience of what Bauhaus are capable of I would recommend dipping in to their other albums.

As they split in 1983 I never managed to see them in their prime and pomp but when they reformed in the late 1990's I saw them at the Brixton Academy and was moved to tears. Here they were almost 20 years after their former heyday and the performance was stunning. A few years later and another attempt at reforming saw the band playing smaller venues but still as vibrant as ever. At this time Bauhaus recorded Go Away White and if I have any criticism it is that the production quality sounds at times rather like a demo session, certainly not up to the standard of their 80's offerings.

This minor glitch aside I'd have to rate Go Away White up there with the better Bauhaus albums. The lads are all on form, Pete Murphy's vocals are as stirring as ever, David J's bass lines are immense (you can hear his influence on Jane's Addiction) Kevin Haskins takes a more straightforward approach to the rhythms and Daniel Ash lets his riffs wash over the tracks, never too much and never too little.

Bauhaus, I thank you. "Oh to be the cream!"

Not what I was expecting - a pleasant surprise
I wasn't quite sure what to expect from this. Whilst I enjoyed the Bauhaus tracks that I heard on my teens (the eighties), I don't think I ever sat down and listened to a whole Bauhaus album. The parameters of my listening experience were - like, I suspect, many of my peers - the darkly camp 'Bela Lugosi's Dead' and the respectful cover of Bowie's 'Ziggy Stardust'.

'Go Away White' came as some surprise then, although I wouldn't say it is unrecognisable as the same band: Pete Murphy's vocals alone stamp their identity on this release. Starting with the surprisingly funky 'Too Much 21st Century', the album then veers back onto more expected territory, although constructively references later period Bowie (Heathen-era on 'Saved') as well as new wave stalwarts Wire (on 'Mirror Remains').

I'm not sure there's a huge incentive to buy this if you aren't (weren't) a Bauhaus fan but I was delighted to find an enjoyable album with a strong sense of identity and Pete Murphy takes himself satisfyingly seriously.

Bauhaus- Go Away White LP Review (7.5/10)
As excited as I was for the Bauhaus reunion tour over the last couple of years, I don't think I could say the same for a new Bauhaus studio album. Perhaps the band's dedicated following of absinthe drinking, Dracula worshiping goth misfits were pretty blown away by the prospects, but anyone who doesn't proclaim Edgar Allen Poe as their favorite author probably shares the same opinion as I do; that goth-rock is mostly dead.

There are times on Go Away White when it seems like even Bauhaus, the godfathers of Goth, thinks this. Admittedly, the jagged post punk anti-chords, tense atmospherics and oddball bouncy bass abound in tracks like "Undone" and "Endless Summer of The Damned" fits in satisfyingly with their 80's work. But on tracks like "Too Much 21'st Century" and "International Bullet Proof Talent", Bauhaus retreat to more straight-forward, pop-ladden, Glam-Rock influences, matching T. Rex style guitar chugging with vocals that eerily resemble latter-day Bowie or Nick Cave.

Now there's no denying that the hooks on these tracks are inescapable. But similar tracks like "Adrenalin" and "Black Stone Heart" don't fare even half as memorably, and one gets the feeling that it would've been smarter to do away with this tired rock-posturing completely, in order to craft a more focused and effective blast of nostalgia. Especially when the more traditionally goth tracks of Go Away White are done so well. The latter track in particular, has the trouble of having to follow the wonderful slow-burn that is "Mirror Remains", which moves from it's initial groove into a blend of snake rattles, hand claps, free jazz piano fiddling and ear piercing noise.

So maybe Goth-Rock still has a fighting chance in this decade, but that doesn't change the fact that even one of it's founding fathers won't put complete confidence into it's power. Closing songs, "Zikir" and "The Dog's A Vapour" are atmospheric, spooky winks to the goth sub-culture, both of which actually succeed at using moans, groans and reverb to be genuinely unsettling and...well...scary. But unlike Dinosaur Jr, with their excellent reunion album last year, Bauhaus just can't seem to put full faith into the style that's so obviously their greatest strength. Go Away White is a good album. But it could've been great. And as a final chapter in the Bauhaus legacy, it's a little too compromised to be anything other than a bit of a disappointment. (Aron Fischer)


For fans of: Nick Cave, David Bowie, Joy Division, T. Rex, Public Image Ltd, The Cure