Into this year’s Top 30, the first five selections feature a couple of goth/post-punk supergroups and a fair few individuals who have been around the scene since the very start, but are still capable of producing work of a standard that bears comparison to the best that impetuous and carefree youth can muster. Encouraged by their success, perhaps more of the elder statesmen and women of the movement will venture into the studio in 2021. Here's hoping ...
30 Capitals - Satellite
I’m cheating a little including this specific track as it
appeared on an album originally recorded two years ago, but was only available
on Bandcamp (and therefore came to my attention) for the first time in 2020,
but Capitals, from the Mexican city of Guadalajara also released a new
single later in the year which would also have made the Top 50. Minimalist post-punk
of a style that would appeal to fans of Joy Division, Capitals’ music is
uplifted by some unexpectedly jolly guitar lines, as here on Satellite.
29 Black Chapel – House of Ghosts
Hastily-renamed “goth supergroup” Black Chapel, from
the movement’s home turf of Yorkshire (UK), boast former (and in some cases,
current) members of BFG, Expelaires and principally The Danse Society, and
unleashed a peach of an album this year (originally under the name, The
Society) with Hell Is Waiting. The album’s title hints at the contents,
a spiritual follow-up to TDS’s classic 1984 album Heaven Is Waiting.
Swirling keyboards, angular, haunting guitar lines and Paul Gilmartin’s
powerful drumming are very much to the fore on th aetmospheric House of Ghosts, as on other tracks, with
Leeds legend Paul “Grape” Gregory’s distinctive vocal adding a further
unsettling yet familiar layer. Black Chapel build on the musical foundations of
classic 1980’s The Danse Society and keep the band’s original spirit alive by creating
a new and distinctive strand of the goth/post-punk revival.
28 Mary – Die Before Death
Canadian project Mary built on the promise of a couple
of encouraging darkwave EPs last decade with a now fully-formed sound and an excellent
2020 debut album, making podcast playlists the world over and becoming the name
on everyone’s lips in the middle of the year. Title track Die Before Death has
a fantastic gothgaze intro reminiscent of great 90’s bands like The God Machine
and Catherine Wheel, and the whole song shows a classic sense of melody and
musical dynamics that reminds me strangely in atmosphere of The Stone Roses’ I
Wanna Be Adored in parts, which can only ever be a good thing. Other tracks
had more of a B-Movie/New Order/Cure vibe, showing the band’s range over a beautifully-crafted
album for fans of the lighter side of darkwave.
27 This Eternal Decay – Future Anthem
Another post-punk “supergroup”, this time from Italy, This
Eternal Decay typified the spirit of many bands in 2020, refusing to be
brow-beaten and adapting the launch of their debut album to the “new normal” of a
world under lockdown. Animated by the typically excellent pulsing bass of
Pasquale Vico of the band Date At Midnight, TED’s album was a real darkwave
delight, with driving beats and soaring melodies, and even a guest appearance
by Alex from Then Comes Silence on the appropriately-named track Silence.
Future Anthem builds on the classic three-note Bela Lugosi’s Dead bassline
with something a lot more unhinged, channeling the energy of The Three Johns in
a track that lives up to its name.
26 The Psychedelic Furs – Come All Ye Faithful
The first new Furs album in roughly thirty years was
awaited with a mixture of dread and anticipation, but even those in the latter
category had their expectations hugely exceeded by the sheer energy, invention
and drive of a release recently announced as Vive Le Rock’s album of the year.
Drawing on everything from funk to jazz, dreampop to post-punk, the album shimmered
where others fade with Richard Butler on top lyrical and vocal form. Their
place on end-of-year lists is anything but a sympathy vote or a tugging of the
forelock to old masters - this album rocked. With its parping and wailing sax,
funkily-syncopated backbeat, razor sharp lyrics and stereo channel changing, Come
All Ye Faithful is perhaps the most avant-garde selection in this year’s Goth/Post-Punk
Revival countdown, not bad for guys in their early sixties. Respect is due. Are
you listening, Andrew Eldritch?
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