Burning From the Inside
The essential Goth band Bauhaus was already starting to splinter by the time of this final album, soBurning from the Insideis a rickety bridge between fiery, arty intimations of darkness, and the two paths bandmembers later took: singer Peter Murphy's intense new-wave drama, and the more playful dance-club rock groove favored by the others (who went on to Tones On Tail and to Love and Rockets). David J.'s guitar sound, sour and sharp, and the band's dubby production tricks, define these songs more than Murphy's tremulous pronouncements about Antonin Artaud and emotional violence, and the artistic tension makes this their most musically adventurous record, from the tiny groan "Wasp" to the sprawling, doom-laden title track.--Douglas Wolk