GO AWAY WHITE - BAUHAUS
Recorded in 18 days, some tracks in one take, Bauhaus’ fifth studio album proves that even a quarter-century’s hiatus can’t kill a great band, especially if it was undead to begin with. There’s no trickery here — apart from the sinister seduction of Peter Murphy’s ever-deepening Transylvanian croon — and the bare, live style makes the band’s heirs even more apparent. There’s PJ Harvey in David J’s swamp-blues bass; Nirvana in the shrieking, submerged guitar of Daniel Ash. But the quartet doesn’t compose or perform like elder statesmen: “International Bullet Proof Talent” and “Endless Summer of the Damned” are as spry and visceral as its first material. If the band had released a bunch of meandering albums during the past 25 years, you might call “Go Away White” a return to form. Instead, it picks up right where Bauhaus left off: a wet dream for original fans and a blast of recognition for the newly eye-lined.
