REVIEWS [ALBUMS]

each other. But they’re old-fashioned romantics— married, in love, and fighting to stay that way. Their 2007 debut captured the bleaker aspects of modern life, but here they find optimism in “Talking Hotel Arbat Blues” and “All We Want, Baby, Is Everything.” The difference is like listening to a heartbeat instead of an EKG: Face Control’s programmed electronics, in fact, ring deeply human, and Boeckner’s tortured vocals express shared experience rather than alienation. Even the album’s Cold War backdrop can’t cool their romance. JESSICA SUAREZ

Here We Go Magic
Here We Go Magic

••••••••••
MYSPACE AMAZON
Chameleonic songwriter
quietly freaks out on you
It’s a risky proposition when
a largely unheard artist
wraps himself in a new
identity that’s clearly
evocative of two trendy
styles—Panda Bear’s Beach
Boy–ish psychedelia and
the Afro-pop revived by
Vampire Weekend. But
Brooklyn’s Luke Temple pos-
sesses both an eerily high-
pitched cry and a facility for
his adopted grooves that
makes the results far more
distinctive than derivative.
“Fangela” would work as a

campfire lullaby, but here it ripples with high-speed harp arpeggios that undulate like a centipede’s legs in an unearthly electronic jungle. Magic indeed. BARRY WALTERS

Robyn Hitchcock
Goodnight Oslo

••••••••••
MYSPACE AMAZON
Mind-bending vet sounds
younger than yesterday
Hitchcock’s second album
with the Venus 3, who
include R.E.M.’s Peter
Buck, is less dazzling than
2006’s Olé! Tarantula, yet
still pretty compelling. Curi-
ously, his psychedelic folk
rock sounds more youthful

track, six minutes of nightmare fodder. JON YOUNG

ROBYN HI TCHCOCK

now than it did in the ’80s, despite the usual fixation on mortality. Witness the breezy “Your Head Here,” on which Hitchcock purrs, “Ring my chimes / I’m a

ding-dong daddy,” or “ Saturday Groovers,” a charming detour into ’70s nostalgia. Purists who prefer his morbid side can savor the sullen “ 16 Years” or the surreal title

Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit

••••••••••
MYSPACE AMAZON
Ex-Trucker wades through
doomed romance, booze
Southern rock is a minefield
of rebel flags, drinking songs,
and dudes yelling “Free
Bird!” With Drive-By Truck-
ers, singer-guitarist Jason
Isbell learned to embrace
some of those clichés; on
his gritty, vibrant second
solo album, he begins to
transcend them. “However
Long” personalizes working-
class disaffection into a

British historian Richard Davenport-Hines traces the long-running revival of gothic sensibility from Mount Vesuvius’ eruption in 1637 to the advent of goth rock 351 years later, when certain sad, artsy punk bands started getting submissive and romantic and wearing black lipstick and moaning in their lower register. Some still do.

ESSENTIALS

FROM THE DEPTHS OF HELL AND HOT TOPIC,
A GOTH PRIMER FOR GHOULS OF ALL AGES
By Chuck Eddy

JOY DIVISION Heart and Soul MYSPACE AMAZON 1Ian Curtis hanged himself in 1980 at age 23, insuring idolatry by generations of teen depressives; his Manchester band (formerly Warsaw, futurely New Order) took their moniker from slang for Nazi brothels. The anguished passion play started at apocalyptic sludge punk and evolved toward the austere techno pop of “She’s Lost Control,” turning a roiling groove seemingly acquired from the Doors, the Velvet Underground, and Uriah Heep into a down-in-the-dumps dirge that made you question your religious upbringing. These four discs comprise pretty much their entire output.

BAUHAUS

1979–1983: Volume One MYSPACE AMAZON 6Though named for a decidedly un-gothic German architecture movement, these disembodied, meditative Brits are frequently credited as first putting the genre on wax, with their 1979 obituary/ remembrance of Dracula actor Bela Lugosi. Before long, lead vampire Peter Murphy was neutering T. Rex and subjecting hot topics like stigmata and St. Vitus to one of the most comatose baritones in history. The kids, bless their telltale hearts, ate it up.

BAUHAUS

THE CURE

Standing on a Beach: The Singles MYSPACE AMAZON 2Born three years after Curtis, Robert Smith had the wherewithal to take his doldrums less seriously, even if legions of young fans appropriating his botched makeup didn’t. The greatest songs here are the oldest—1980’s Boys Don’t Cry, sputtering with grinding-halt hooks caught somewhere between early Wire and Buzzcocks, is the Cure’s best album. But this comp also documents how they briefly slowed into iconic glumsters, before Smith crassly lovecatted us off to bed.

SIOUXSIE AND THE BANSHEES Once Upon a Time: The Singles MYSPACE AMAZON 3Siouxsie Sioux’s Transylvanianish troupe commenced in 1976, with Sid Vicious on drums, demolishing “The Lord’s Prayer” for 20 minutes. But by the time they recorded these ten gargoyle vignettes, they’d tightened up—a Jefferson Airplane for the post-punk cabaret, almost. Only two selections exceed 3: 30, and the majority were actual British hits. Three concern exotic lands; all feature scary footsteps.

cover and aptly named their signature tune “Pagan Lovesong.” Yet surprisingly, this obscure cult object is still as playable as any album on this list, which demonstrates that sometimes “ritualistic” equals “catchy.” The tom-toms help a lot.

RED LORRY YELLOW LORR Y Smashed Hits MYSPACE AMAZON 7By the mid-’80s, the doomsday drone of Joy Division and Killing Joke had devolved into a decadent shtick that wouldn’t die—none dared called it metal, but it was getting close. Goth’s biggest such band, the Sisters of Mercy, certainly had their moments: “Black Planet” is a brood for the ages. But this churning Leeds foursome did it tougher, with muscle and momentum marinated in the blood of John Bonham.

VIRGIN PRUNES …If I Die, I Die MYSPACE AMAZON 4Histrionic heretics born of a Dublin milieu that also produced Bono and the Edge (whose brother Dik plays guitar here), these weirdos dressed as near-naked savages on their album

45 GRAVE

Debasement Tapes AMAZON 5In the ’70s, when England had Bowie, America had Alice Cooper. Hence the less-than-suicidal, Halloweenie B-movie shock’n’roll trash of the Cramps, Misfits, Flesh Eaters, and White Zombie, and even more so, L.A.’s turn-of-the-’80s death-punk bands. Of the latter, Christian Death were perhaps the most famous, but 45 Grave were the craziest, somehow anticipating both Venom (Satanic goat logo!) and N. W.A (1981 title: “ Gangsta Rap”!) from behind dark mascara.

VARIOUS AR TIS TS A Life Less Lived: The Gothic Box AMAZON 8A three-CD, one-DVD tour of ponderous pretension, charting every band above and then some: the Birthday Party’s Down Under graveyard blues; industrial initiation rites from Einstürzende Neubauten and Throbbing Gristle; darkwave-defining dreamscapes from Cocteau Twins and Dead Can Dance; and a pop periphery that runs from the Jesus and Mary Chain to AFI. You’ll never confuse Xmal Deutschland with Clan of Xymox, or Alien Sex Fiend with Miranda Sex Garden, again.

FROM TOP: GEORGE WRIGH T; FIN COSTELLO/REDFERNS/RETNA

80 MARCH 2009 / DO WNLOAD NEW MP3s AT SPIN.COM