[Back to the Beginning] Peter Murphy’s Should the World Fail to Fall Apart vs. Ninth

I’m so fucking tired of comparing music that sounds the same.

There. I said it.

I fucking hate it so much, I want to shoot myself in the face and put myself out of my misery. I suppose when some rock musicians get to a certain age or stage in their careers, they just make a conscious choice to stop being an innovator and start making music that will get them a fucking paycheck.

Not all rock artists are this way, to be sure. Jimi Hendrix planned to collaborate with Miles Davis before the guitarist died. (Two great tastes that would have tasted great together in my opinion.) I’m sure there were and are others. However, it seems to me that just as many established artists tend to reflect on their storied careers as they sense the end of theirs. (And, believe me, these old geezer rockers totally know that they’re on the down-slope of their careers.) And, as I mentioned last week, that reflection or whatever you want to call it makes my job as a music reviewer that specializes in retrospectives REALLY FUCKING HARD.

Take this week’s featured artist, the Godfather of Goth, Peter Murphy. There’s no doubting that he’s talented, and both his solo work and work with the band Bauhaus earn him a place in the rock pantheon. However, when you cover such bands like Magazine and Pere Ubu and artists like DAVID FUCKING BOWIE, it proves that you have an ear for the innovative.

Murphy might still have an ear for innovative music, but I doubt he has the musical chops for it any more.

If I were forced to write about the differences between Should the World Fail to Fall Apart and Ninth, the only thing that I would be able to put down with any certainty is that he features keyboards more on his debut solo album. However, that’s a lot like saying that cocaine was a pretty popular drug in the 1980s. Seriously. Here’s the opening track to Should the World…:

And here’s a track that I like from Ninth:

The poetic lyrics remain has they have since the late 1970s. The music remains pretty much the same since the mid-1980s. Return to form? Maybe. Did he ever leave it? It’s hard to tell.

Verdict: Fans will like this album, but most likely not love it and either regret buying/torrenting it or relegate it to a forgotten corner of their music collection. Newcomers would be better served getting Wild Birds: 1985-1995 (a compilation album) or, better yet, going straight to the source and getting the first four Bauhaus albums.

Insert worn-out “Bela Lugosi’s Dead and so is Peter Murphy” joke attempt here.

Programming Note: Due to a lack of suitable artists to feature (it’s seriously between Barry Manilow and Ziggy Marley, people), I’m going to take a much-needed break from next week’s Back to the Beginning. However, don’t think that I’ll be idle. Stay tuned for a one-off replacement next week, and then I’ll get back into it starting with the voting for the featured artist.