Two years after the chaotic disintegration of Bauhaus, three quarters of the legendarily artful goth pioneers reconvened as Love And Rockets and would go on to enjoy genuine commercial success in the US, most notably with their radio hit So Alive in 1989.
Newly presented on Blu-ray, in ear-frazzling 5.1 and a new stereo mix, the trio’s debut Seventh Dream Of Teenage Heaven retained some of their former band’s glowering aesthetic, but it was a much more whimsical and psychedelic shuffle through the shadows, full of twinkling acoustic guitars and shimmering keybords. Songs like If There’s A Heaven Above and A Private Future owed more to Barrett and Bolan than to the Batcave, and 31 years on they sound curiously timeless. The new mixes are frequently revelatory, not least on The Dog-End Of A Day Gone By’s wonderfully woozy backdrop of layered guitars, and the inclusion of their debut single, a cover of The Temptations’ Ball Of Confusion, is a welcome bonus.
A classic but often overlooked album treated with an appropriate level of care, this is a straightforward fans-only deal but a superlative one at that. Fingers crossed that second album Express, Rockets’ finest, gets the same treatment.
