Sanctuary: 26 Gothic Anthems - Various (Universal) At last! A compilation which delivers what it promises; no waffle, no padding, no tunes desperately tagged on before fade-out, no pretence.
Goths, rockers and others inclined towards the heavier end of the musical scale will lap this up - almost two hours, on two CDs, of power-chord quality, with numerous pseudo-intellectual refinements to leaven the load.
The start is a cranium-crusher, with The Cult, The Mission, and Fields of the Nephilim waking up the neighbours. The ever-eloquent Nick Cave, the terminally trendy Red Lorry Yellow Lorry (remember them? probably not) and the adamantly arty Bauhaus arrive in the second wave of artists, bringing some cerebral weight to proceedings.
There is even some shock-rock in the unmistakable form of Marilyn Manson, some hippy-dippiness courtesy of All About Eve, some firepower from the New Model Army and some techno-meets-Lou Reed from Sheep on Drugs.
It's funny, though, how much of the music here has been distilled. Give it 10 years (in most cases), a dollop of objectivity and a pinch of sober reflection, and it becomes obvious that whether your bag is Chuck Berry, hip-hop or house, there's nothing that new under the musical sun. Rock on.
