Wax Idols -Ā Discipline and DesireĀ (Slumberland Records)
I very much enjoyed Wax Idolsā debut album,Ā No Future, and, when I heard this album was even darker, I knew I had to get it. I bought it on Record Store Day, and it has been set spinning on my turntable numerous times since.Ā Discipline & DesireĀ is goth as fuck, but in the scary, understated old school goth way - not in the new school āI wear pounds of pale makeup and buy spell books at the mallā way. Both sound-wise and aesthetically, the women in Wax Idols seem like girls I would have wanted to hang out with when I was a teenager, but I would have been too intimidated to approach them. I would have feared theyād either pull their knives on me, or, more likely (and even more devastatingly), just said: āGet lost, nerd.ā
Standouts: āStare Backā - the guitar wails like a banshee, the bass line is fantastically post-punk, the drums are swirling, and the spaced-out vocals are definitely reminiscent of Siouxsie Sioux; that said, the song manages to sound similar to its predecessors without being derivative, and honestly this is my favorite kind of goth stuff. (Iām really not goth, I swear, but I have my moments.) āSound of a Void,ā the vocals are like Siouxsie meets Nico, the music is strange and discordant at times, yet still beautiful;Ā letās turn down the static world and listen to the sound of a void. āThe Scent of Loveā is dark and sexy, allĀ whispering tongues and hovering shadow, and reminds me a little of Concrete Blonde. āStay Inā makes me want to light candles and write poetry and do witchy things.
