Goth never caught on as a mainstream-newsworthy item the way
grunge did, so it only produced a few couple of superstars, namely The Cure and
Siouxsie Sioux, and because everyone did not get the chance to burn out on Goth
as they did on grunge, Goth had much longer, spidery legs. Consequently, there
was so much to choose from in compiling Silhouettes
and Statues that key artists such as Siouxsie, Killing Joke, and Christian
Death could be sidelined in favor of a slew of more obscure artists.
There are gradations in this set’s overwhelming grey. While
I might not go so far as to call them poppy, tracks such as Joy Division’s
“Shadowplay”, Southern Death Cult’s “Moya”, Zero Le Creche’s “Last Year’s
Wife”, Cocteau Twins’ “In Our Angelhood”, Balaam and the Angels’ “The
Darklands”, The Damned’s “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”, All About Eve’s “D Is for
Desire” (which takes some of the sting out of the absence of the movement’s
definitive diva, Siouxsie Sioux), and quite a few others are as accessible as
the best of the legit New Wavers who never shot a video on a yacht. There are
also alluringly spooky numbers from Dead Can Dance, Bushido, Adam & the
Ants, and original Goth maestro Nico, while toothy tracks by Actifed, UK Decay,
Penetration, and Flesh for Lulu straddle the line between Goth and punk invigoratingly.
Silhouettes and
Statues most certainly does not play it safe, though, and excessively abrasive
or otherwise difficult tracks by The Birthday Party, Portion Control, Schliemer
K, In the Nursery, Bone Orchard, Part 1, and nine-and-a-half minutes of Anorexic
Dread will wash away the less dedicated like a gloomy, doomy tsunami. Of course
playing it safe is not very Goth, while washing stuff away like a gloomy, doomy tsunami is, so anyone who still sprays their black locks up like a starfish
and slathers on the pancake makeup will delight in Silhouettes and Statues. Well, maybe “delight” is the wrong word,
but you get the picture.
