Changing seventy minutes of dried time into a lush glade flourished in musical prose, gently lit by the existential gleam of a dying sun, the broody atmosphere of Black Tape For A New Girl meets their eleventh album in the midst of their thirtieth anniversary, beckoning you in to a dark dream while you reverie within its unhurried embrace.
Opening up to The Vastness of Life, an epic of five consecutive parts, Sam Rosenthall and co. engage with their nostalgia ruminating on existentialism in a somber and despairing tone to sound out the coming reflections of past memories. The considerations of which could be taken straight from a random high-school Goths’ diary, but not in a bad way, and with way less archaic language. In fact its harrowing Lacrimosa juxtaposes an eerie beauty while it engenders thoughts and feelings that are new and exciting but entirely alien to those that accept fear as their sovereign.
With sentiments to some kind of moribund opera original vocalist Oscar Herrera returns to bleed tears from the lyrical content after departing around nineteen-ninety-nine. The imagery he inspires affects a dialogue with the listener and even through his majestic soliloquy questions beckon from his expressions.
Yet philosophical anecdotes aside the dulcet compositions of These Fleeting Moments are similar to what is associated with world music, yet they harbor a deeply gothic touch. Its pastoral and often mystical conveyance is both enchanting and haunting in its instrumental range, which features both organic and synthetic operations.
It’s not all radiant conjectures on life, love and the universe as there are some more traditional goth rock moments, especially in the sound of the guitar parts. Where they inspire that black sound and hark back to the popular eighties tone. These rockier passages contrast the imposing and engrossing mood of the album with an overt and emphatic passion for the darker side of music. As pioneers of dark/coldwave it’s an expectation that’s surpassed in its execution.
Black Tape For A Blue Girl show their affinity for contemplative nocturnes. Its strange allures come across as both dissonant and neoclassical but they mix confidently into a robust tale on mortality and wistful thinking.
8/10
