Floodland

I’ve always loved “This Corrosion,” with its tension between the dark lyrics and celebratory music. So while this isn’t the most original album, it has lots of the kinds of songs that I like (threatening/incomprehensible lyrics, a solid beat, and vaguely North African undertones). I definitely enjoyed this, but then I've always been a bit of a Goth.

Einfach eine Reihe von 3 Sterne durchschnittsalben hintereinader

Marvellous stuff this. "This Corrosion" on my go-to playlist already thanks to the synth / deep vocals but from the opening electronic drums & midi sounds of Dominion you just know this is going to be (a) very 80s (b) very OTT.

This kind of goth shit is a blind spot for me and I really like some of it

5 stars … and now i have an uncontrollable urge to wear black in inappropriate weather conditions.

This sounds so much 80s, OK I can say that I listened to it.

One of the great classic goth records, perhaps even quintessentially so, whether or not Eldritch wants to admit it.

A really good and dark gothic rock album. Some songs were a bit dull, but many actually had catchy earworms. 4/5

'In the light of the fact on the lone & level / Sands stretch far away.' That's a nod to Shelley's 'Ozymandias,' a poem that famously takes to task man's penchant for unfounded power/dominion. But this is an album that suffers from its lack of power, being too dramatic to be impressive & too tongue-in-cheek to be believable, tho I do allow that it has a kind of fullness. 'As the water come rushing in / As the water come rushing in.' Associative but not effectively abstract, Andrew Eldritch sings from the vantage point of a goth w/ little imagination, meaning not very goth, at least as Walpole would have it. But I would be remiss if I said I didn't sorta enjoy the whole thing, e'en if it's mostly a matter of it's being a proper ode to the drab, 80s style.

I was pretty disappointed with this record; I love their single "Emma" and knew it was from this recording session. I was hoping, therefore, to dig the record it sprung from but I was unimpressed overall and felt it was mostly middling Bauhaus/Bowie worship with flat production.

people (Andrew Eldritch) will look and sound like That and say they're not goths

Feels like a (bad) parody of something I can’t quite put my finger on

2

Floodlnad was an album that i enjoyed more than i thought i was going to. The easiest band that i can compare this to is The Cure as they are both gothic rock and follow the same beats but this album does feel quite a bit darker than either of The Cure albums that i listened to. The show stealers here are the show stealers on all the best new wave records, that being the bass and the synths. Those were handled very well and gave that album the very gothic vibe that i enjoy. I initially found Andrew Eldritch's vocals a bit weird and unorthodox at first but i later on got used to it and found it similar to Dave Gahan and Martin Gore's voices. This album was quite a nice surprise.
Best Song: This Corrosion
Worst Song: 1959

This is possibly the most 80s sounding album from the list yet, but I actually liked it quite a bit. I frequently find goth music too depressing and full of despair, but this managed to find a great, dark and moody, balance without being too much.

I’m at a 3.5 that I'll bump down to a 3.

There’s a good sense of atmosphere here, but I just don’t think it ever gets married with a consistent enough vision. This album can’t decide if it wants to be moodier like The Cure or electronic like Depeche Mode, while dealing with its own crisis of the sole writer here taking potshots at his old bandmates instead of writing more fruitful lyrics, leading to a consistent yet dry soundscape & an inconsistent tonality to the album. I do think it generally sounds good despite the dryness of the soundscape, but there’s never a proper lift in any of these tracks that elevate them past being decently enjoyable. The tonality of this album is what hurts it the most; a few tracks carry a general analogy towards the Soviet Union & U.S. relations of the era as it relates to the band’s breakup & their own ‘cold war’ of sorts, but the introspection that comes with it initially is quickly replaced by a pettiness that just feels kinda childish.

“This Corrosion” is the prime suspect here, and it might be one of the most useless 9 minute tracks throughout all the tracks we’ve gotten across 910 albums so far. There is a line between making an intentionally bad track & a bad track. “This Corrosion” tries to be the former, but the problem with writing an unappealing song is that you just end up creating something unappealing. Frank Zappa knew how to make an unappealing vibe the blatant joke of a song, due in part to at least a healthy respect for the styles he was doing pastiches of. Andrew Eldritch, on the other hand, is a man who released a single under a different band name just to stop his former bandmates from being able to use said name. Do you think that warrants any kind of healthy respect? What results from it is just 9 minutes of utterly trite music that goes nowhere, especially due to a lack of instrumental progression. It is a waste of 9 minutes on the album that perhaps could’ve gone to making sure “Never Land” was a bit more than just the 3 minute fragment it ends up being.

Hence, a 3. A competent album, for sure, and when it finds its best grooves, it’s fun to listen to – “Lucretia My Reflection” is probably the highlight here, followed by “Flood II” & “Driven Like the Snow”. However, the album just sort of meanders without a top to bottom vision behind it, & with it being 45 minutes that largely don’t feel like they have something more meaningful to say, I just can’t find the throughline here to go any higher. I hear the appeal, but I don’t personally find it appealing. That said, I think it’s got a place on the list for those who do. For me, it’s just a 3.

Catchy, 80s, Goths.

Floodland is supposedly the gold standard for 80s gothic rock. It’s got this massive, cinematic energy that hits hard with those dark, pulsing basslines and the drum machine backing everything up. When you get to tracks like "This Corrosion" and "Lucretia My Reflection", it’s pure, brooding theater in the best way possible.

That said, the album really starts to lose its grip after a while. The production gets super repetitive, and once you realise every song is kind of following the same blueprint, the second half starts to feel like a bit of a slog. It’s a vibe for a few tracks, but eventually, the self serious atmosphere just starts to feel a little monotonous. Urgh.

Es ist der große, gotische Kathedralenbau der Sisters of Mercy: monumental, dunkel schimmernd, von Andrew Eldritchs Stimme wie von einer einsamen Glocke zusammengehalten. „Dominion/Mother Russia“ rollt wie ein endzeitlicher Marsch heran, „Lucretia My Reflection“ pulsiert mit kaltem, perfektem Maschinenherz, und „This Corrosion“ ist ein überlebensgroßes Drama aus Chorwänden und Pathos. Alles wirkt zugleich übertrieben und absolut zwingend. Ein Klassiker, der seine eigene Nacht erschafft.

I think I've finally found a goth rock album that's clicked.

This one had that atmosphere you associate with goth rock but I found this more fun and catchy. Opening track and This Corrosion were my faves

I liked this. 4/5