There isn’t much in the way of the concept album in the goth genre- perhaps only The Cure’s ‘Pornography’ comes close- but Bauhaus ‘ brilliant, multi-faceted The Sky’s Gone Out is perhaps our equivalent of a post-punk Pink Floyd or something, just with better songs. Forgive me, PF fans, but I don’t like post-Syd Floyd very much.
This third album, released in 1982, was from all accounts, fraught with tension. The band’s recording sessions had them falling out over creative differences. But that’s the only associated cliché regarding this album. It sounds like nothing else. It’s an extremely formative recording for me. I played my tape of it until it was shredded in the unspooling, due to overuse.
Perhaps the inter-band squabbles were what gives the album such an edge, though. From the brittle, reverby cover of Eno’s ‘Third Uncle’ with Kevin Haskins’ clattering drums and Pete Murphy’s manic vocals, to the resigned melancholy of ‘All We Ever Wanted Was Everything’ the band play like the building is about to burst into flames: such urgency.
The sonic palette too has widened even further. ‘Spirit’ is arguably more artrock than goth, sounding like something Kate Bush might have jammed, circa ‘Never For Ever’. It’s grandiose and declamatory, with its thespian mantra of “we love our audience!” For me, the album version outclasses the somewhat more anaemic single version.
Then there’s the spoken word stuff, all gloriously pretentious. Who’s Terry the soldier? Anyone? There are little monologues about people having breakdowns, a dub bass section with someone snoring (horrible, yet amusing) and a strange enigmatic epilogue. This is not your meat and potatoes rock album. It’s enigmatic, eccentric and often caustic -a raised eyebrow always discernible in Pete Murphy’s sneering vocals, but paradoxically, a little self-deprecating, too.
I love this record unashamedly. Many a wasted night was spent listening to this beauty. It was, predictably, critically mauled, but I think time has been kind to Bauhaus. They took risks, and they mostly paid off.
Hit The North 
While this album had an outsized influence on the elements on the sound my own goth band pursued near the end of our own petty squabbles and subsequent demise in the late 80s, in latter years I grew to love Mask more for listening (although there is something seriously delicious in “Spirit”, especially the longer edit on a seemingly endless repeat of “We love our audience…”). Personal preferences aside, this album blew my mind back when I first heard it.
As both lyricist and primary songwriter for the band, and knowing fuck-all what I was doing as a musician, I started weaving in some of the elements of their songwriting and structure into our songs because of this album. I might have stolen a few bass riffs too (from Three Shadows, no less).
It’s been a spell. Might be time to pull this one out again and listen with new ears. Thanks for the reminder!
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I take that back. It’s a tossup with Mask. Certain songs hit differently. 😉
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Haha! Thanks Michael.
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Thanks for this. I think they crossed genres so effortlessly at a time when it was still quite tribal. Love them.
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Oh, definitely. I only wish more modern bands had that kind of courage. I very much miss the whole experimental sounds of the 80s, where everything was fair game.
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There’s still some nice experimental stuff out there though. Divide And Dissolve, Lana del Rabies, Lankum.. I like the darkest stuff from all eras!
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I’ll have to check those out. I admit there’s stuff out there, but there is much less than before and it is much harder to find because of the quantity of published music in the digital age. Or maybe there is the same quantity, but it is just harder to find.
Thanks 💙
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I give thanks I heard Third Uncle first via this record before Eno. That made my discovery of the latter all the richer. Gosh this band was good. Also came to them via Love and Rockets, and that late 80s video era. Then delighted to hear Tones on Tail of course, to get to see Peter Murphy live too once, with a small unheard-of opener called Nine Inch Nails. We love our audience, so, so good.
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Yeah, liked Tones On Tail too. Never got to see Bauhaus, sadly, living in the middle of nowhere with little money. Nine Inch Nails, eh? Wonder what became of them… 😉
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Trent did something fairly recent I think that was fairly good but I fell out with them many years ago. Think he had an addiction/recovery arc too. Cool we had a Chicago sound here 80s-90s with distinct styles.
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