Bauhaus - The Sky's Gone Out

Bauhaus's "The Sky's Gone Out" is a highly regarded and influential post-punk album, often cited as a highlight of the band's discography and a key example of the early goth sound. While some find it to be a darker, more experimental work than their previous album "Mask", it's praised for its unique blend of dark, theatrical atmosphere, and avant-garde elements. Overall "The Sky's Gone Out" is a complex and rewarding album for those willing to delve into its dark and experimental soundscapes. It's a key part of Bauhaus's legacy and remains a landmark release in the post-punk and goth genres. 

Review by Ned Raggett

More fragmented in origin than it might appear on first glance -- the leadoff track, a phenomenal, nuclear-strength rip through Brian Eno's "Third Uncle," featuring some fantastic soloing from Ash, came from a BBC radio session performance -- The Sky's Gone Out was caught between the expectations of an audience now thoroughly embracing the incipient goth genre, with all the built-in limitations such expectations often provide, and a band which wanted to please them while still following its own muse. On balance it's quite a fine album, but unlike Mask it misses the infusion of a more positive energy, and simply doesn't gel as perfectly, more notable for individual songs than as a whole. Old, pre-recording-career songs like the strong but already dated "In the Night" were revived and balanced against experiments and attempts to further develop the band's sound, ultimately making The Sky's Gone Out feel more like a compilation than anything else. Piece by piece, though, the songs still often showed Bauhaus in excelsis. Ash's elegant, haunting acoustic guitar work received two great showcases -- "Silent Hedges," adding a more familiar electric explosion to a fine Murphy performance detailing a desperate mental collapse, and "All We Ever Wanted Was Everything," a sympathetic, nostalgic reflection on dreams of the past, again matched by a perfectly balanced Murphy vocal. Other standouts include the brooding lope of "Swing the Heartache," with a skeletal rhythm matched against some of Ash's best guitar work, and "Spirit," a live standout inspired by the performance vibe the band received from its fans.

Ripped to MP3

A1 - Third Uncle (Brian Eno cover)

A2 - Silent Hedges

A3 - In the Night

A4 - Swing the Heartache

A5 - Spirit

B1 - The Three Shadows, Part I

B2 - The Three Shadows, Part II

B3 - The Three Shadows, Part III

B4 - All We Ever Wanted Was Everything

B5 - Exquisite Corpse