The Rope – Viper
I love to imagine Peter Murphy ordering pizza over the phone or buying tickets to the movies. I’d like to imagine he wouldn’t change his famous attire or his manner of speaking. Celebrating England winning a football game must be hard for him, also.
Let’s face it, being a goth-rocker takes a good deal of bravery, as well as devotion. It’s much like getting a tattoo across your face. It is certainly sending a bold message out into the world, and the chances that you’ll find employment as an accountant decrease significantly because of your choice.
U.S. group The Rope sound like the kind of individuals who take their work seriously, and I’m glad for it. I like my goth/post-rock seriously. I wouldn’t like to find out that they use their holidays to travel to Disneyland.
Viper is a convincing piece of goth-drama. The vocal performance is certainly the most compelling feature of the track, but the driving bass and drums attack, together with the moody guitar lines also contribute to creating a sophisticated, albeit unsettling mood.
Troubled Traveller – the lucky ones
The sleazy lounge lizard fronting a rock band is a cliche we’ve become accustomed to and anxious to promote. Lounge music is still there, but just like any other style, it has been infused with the flavours of the moment, in this case, electronic music. If you haven’t heard the lounge or wedding band versions of Daft Punk’s Get Lucky, you haven’t had much of social life, I gather.
The thing about the lounge lizards is that, beyond the stylish attire, their mere presence in the lounge raises some red flags. Just try and imagine Brian Ferry hanging around one of those places. To those who don’t know he’s Brian Ferry, he must look like a drug dealer with a fetish for satin.
Troubled Traveller’s the lucky ones is a modern lounge number that draws from sinister storytelling of the likes of Nick Cave and the faux-sophistication of Chet Faker. It’s a fascinating experiment and possibly an answer to the question What would a Nick Cave soundtrack to a James Bond movie sound like? I’m sure it’s an issue many minds have wondered about.
