Best "Goth" album of all time?

To answer your question, however, I'd say FIRST AND LAST AND ALWAYS by the Sisters of Mercy

nominations! It's 2009 bitch, we be polling this!

The Cure - Pornography

(and it'll probably win the poll, too)

Siouxsie & the Banshees - Juju
The Birthday Party - Junkyard

Sisters - Floodland
Dead Can Dance - s/t

Bauhaus - The Sky's Gone Out

X-mal Deutschland - Tocsin
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry - Talk About The Weather
Alien Sex Fiend - Who's Been Sleeping In My Brain

Christian Death, Catastrophe Ballet
Cindytalk, Camouflage Heart

neither one has a chance in a poll but both deserve a nomination and one deserves to win

I know none of my noms stand a chance either.

CONTROVERSIAL:

Cocteau Twins - Garlands

I think we shd limit nominations to one album per band, oder?

I was going to be the annoying guy who asks "what is goth for the purposes of this poll" but fuck it, I'm just going to list albums I like:

My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult - Confessions Of A Knife
KMFDM - Don't Blow Your Top
Skinny Puppy - Bites
Front 242 - Front To Front

xp: dammit was gonna nom Garlands

I guess we'll have the inevitable "do we vote for best or gothiest?" debate but if its the latter I might well vote for 'Garlands'

I went for gothiest when I nommed that Bauhaus album over In The Flat Field.

I'm so with First and Last and Always on this that a poll with other nominations just seems like a chance for collective embarrassment. F&L&A couldn't have existed without Bauhaus, probably, but Eldritch made it a genre. Cradle of Filth and Sentenced did other things with it later, but that's different.

I don't even think First And Last And Always is that good really. Their early singles are so much better.

I'll take Floodland over FALAA any day

Fa la la la.

It's not my favorite SoM album, either, but it's still the one that staked out their place.

I'll take Floodland over FALAA any day

Lucretia My Reflection vs. Marian

Nitzer Ebb - Showtime

more nominations:
Swans - Children of God
The Cure - Faith

Not that I listen to it that often, but hella gothic:
Diamanda Galas - Saint of the Pit

j0hn's gonna hate me but

Christian Death - Only Theatre Of Pain

mainly because I'm ridin on the Rozztails of his recommendation

Cocteau Twins - Treasure
Jesus & Mary Chain - Psychocandy

Maybe I'm stretching a little there...

Not that anything out of the 80s will make it, but an argument could be made for Silent Shout.

Unknown Pleasures will make it, ie im nominating it.

The Fall - Dragnet (okay okay I'm kidding...everybody is more goth than me)

(although the unholy trinity of Psykick Dancehall, Muzorewi's Daughter and Spectre vs. Rector is goth as fuck...)(but this is prolley just like me thinking that Flannery O'Connor is noir...)

It's not my favorite SoM album, either, but it's still the one that staked out their place.

No. Their place was staked out by the EPs that preceded FALAA. As soon as they made their first album, they jumped the shark.

in the spirit of throwing things out there that aren't necessarily (or at all) goth, i just want to say

chris and cosey - trance
OR (whichever is more goth)
chris and cosey - songs of love and lust

yeah, the only Sisters I own is the Some Girls Wander By Mistake. I don't think I could buy any of the proper albums.

I love how broken Andrew's voice got on the really early stuff

The question said "album", thus F&L&A. But if you want to go Some Girls Wander by Mistake, and not fret the format exactly, I'm with you. Or, simpler yet, let's just take the "Temple of Love" 12". Goth in three songs: ToL extended, "Heartland" and truly one of the greatest cover-songs of all time.

Siouxsie and the Banshees - The Scream
Public Image Ltd - The Flowers of Romance
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - From Her to Eternity
Depeche Mode - Black Celebration
Ministry - The Land of Rape and Honey
Cranes - Loved

Bauhaus - The Sky's Gone Out
Christian Death - Only Theatre of Pain
The Cure - Faith/17 Seconds (they were released once as a double album- can I get away with this?)
Diamanda Galas - The Divine Punishment
Dead Can Dance - first album
Birthday Party - Junkyard
Joy Division - Closer
Cocteau Twins - Garlands
The Gun Club - The Fire of Love

^^^^^^^pretty much my high school soundtrack (plus hardcore and metal and industrial/noise)

hmm this list of nominations is getting rather long... though I have feeling some obvious ones are missing

The Cult - Love

A few more obvious ones:

The Mission - God's Own Medicine
All About Eve - All About Eve
Fields of the Nephilim - Dawnrazor
Gene Loves Jezebel - The House of Dolls (?)

Oh balls, if Gene Loves Jezebel are getting nom'ed, then I'm throwing in...

The Bolshoi - Friends

...though I don't think I've listened to it once in the past 47 years. Still play 'Giants' though - mini-albums and EPs are a great format for this sort of thing.

Also, do This Mortal Coil count?

Scraping Foetus off the Wheel : Nail

surely this epic clash of orchestras, doom laden atmospherics, and hate filled lyrics is worthy of gothic love, or, is jims sardonic wit not permissible

I think if Depeche Mode, Gun Club, Cocteaus etc are being nommed This Mortal Coil should be OK!

yeah TMC def. belongs here

This Mortal Coil - It'll End In Tears

all you "The Sisters sucked when they started releasing albums" ppl are insane

I love Some Girls Wander By Mistake to bits and see why going from that to FALAA would be jarring, but Floodland is also great.

As much as I love Bauhaus, I've always thought Tones On Tail were more goth. So let's throw Pop or Night Music or, cheating, Everything! into the list of nominees.

lol guys why don't we just poll all the bands on The Goth Box since it seems that's the direction we're going

tones on tail are better than bauhaus but they're not more goth. Bauhaus's Mask is the definitive goth album I'd say

I dunno, at the risk of splitting the Bauhaus vote, I'd say 'Flat Field' was pretty definitive.

Oh, and there should be a Neubauten album in here - I nominate "Halber Mensch".

thread goal = "list every goth album you like", but it's hard to argue with In the Flat Field

Is it an ordinary ILX poll or a ranked list of 10/20 albums to be sent by email like the end of year poll?

Arvo Part - Te Deum

I agree with those who have said that FALAA is where Sisters jumped the shark. Strangely I liked it well enough as a teenager, but can't explain why that album does nothing for me now. As far as Floodland, though, I do like "Dominon/Mother Russia".

Cocteau Twins - Garlands is goth as hell and you know it. Can't see any controversy over that one, sorry. "In The Flat Field" is a good pick, especially with the bonus tracks on the CD (i.e. Dark Entries...pretty definitive).

I just got Malaria: compiled and like it quite a bit.

The Damned - Phantasmagoria!

Alright my initial idea was to have a poll with 10-20 "classic" contenders. Now I am not sor sure how to go about it... If all the bigger/gothier band get 4-5 albums nominated, I suspect some left-field contender would win it. Suggestions?

dali's car - the waking hour

Shriekback - Oil and Gold

Clan Of Xymox - Clan Of Xymox
X-Mal Deutschland - Fetisch
Chameleons - Script Of The Bridge

Alright my initial idea was to have a poll with 10-20 "classic" contenders. Now I am not sor sure how to go about it... If all the bigger/gothier band get 4-5 albums nominated, I suspect some left-field contender would win it. Suggestions?

Maybe we can vote for our Top 5?

I don't think the poll option lets you do that. I guess we would need to have some kind of play-offs but that seems a bit excessive...

why not do an email poll where you can rank up to 20 albums. That way you are more likelier to get a fair winner?

Unless you dont want to tabulate the results. I can understand that.

Maybe do it "essence of an album" style, where we remove one at a time?

Danielle Dax - Dark Adapted Eye
Rasputina - Thanks for the Ether

Switchblade Symphony - Bread & Jam for Frances

(I'm corny)

I mean I wld vote for that over 80% of this stuff.

If you could manage an email poll with ranked lists then thats the best way to go. Its only a one-off. Otherwise you wont really get a lucretia my true reflection of peoples votes.

damn that was meant to be
If you could manage an email poll with ranked lists then thats the best way to go. Its only a one-off. Otherwise you wont really get a lucretia my true reflection of peoples votes.

And no one will dance the ghost with you.

:-(

seriously tho - I dont think I have the time to compile an email poll right now, but maybe regarding the bigger bands, I could just pick whichever album each of these band's poll (assuming they've been polled)

I don't like those something of somthing eyeliner backcomb bands at all, but if by goth you mean dark cathedrals of the mind, then I'd nominate Propaganda's A Secret Wish. Still magnificent.

OK, just created two "playoff" threads for bauhaus and the Sisters. Winners qualify for the goth world series:

All the POLL that you can get: Sisters of Mercy albums

Alone in a darkened POLL: Bauhaus

Gazz & Joth 2010. Do it.

Pornography The Cure

(Best for drinking to 'Acid Bath' by Alien Sex Fiend)

Great idea to have Sisters/Bauhaus playoffs! Nice to see Rasputina get a mention. Their last disc was seriously nuts.

Another nomination : "Thirsty's Calling" by The Moodists.

Special category for Helalyn Flowers?

http://www.gothtronic.com/Goth/img_/Music1/sub/helalynflowersavc2cdbig.jpg

(o i miss them)

another for Garlands

Birthday Party runner-up - but which album to choose?
and did anyone mention Virgin Prunes yet?

I used to imagine there were 2 kinds of goth: 'true' goth and cartoon goth (the latter being the primary version that became popular in the states)

What are the respective fashion styles of true goths and cartoon goths?

both 'true' and cartoon goth is global yo

There are Euro metal goths as well. They listen to Lacuna Coil and dress like characters from 5th Sense.

I'm curious about the German Goth scene, which seems to have been pretty huge from the nineties on, with a lot of fairly big bands that barely register in the English speaking world.

Anyone know this stuff?

So, that's a no then? Apart from Rammstein?

I can never remember which ones are Belgian and which ones are German or possibly even other European countries. Die Krupps? KMFDM? My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult? Excessive Force? Front 242 were Belgian right? As were Insekt. Nitzer Ebb wanted to be German.

lol TKK are from Chicago!

KMFDM are now Seattle via Germany.

Bimble wouldnt be happy if Nightwish or Within Temptation or any of the other huge goth-metal bands were nominated/voted for

TKK! doh.

I have to go for "Faith" here, really.

Unless "Black Celebration" counts, that is.

I'm curious about the German Goth scene, which seems to have been pretty huge from the nineties on, with a lot of fairly big bands that barely register in the English speaking world.

I posted an album by Pink Turns Blue on my blog not too long ago. I don't think they're essential, but pretty good anyway.

Sopor Aeternus seem deeply odd. Unheilig's Chrismas album 'Frohes Fest' remains a firm festive favorite in our house. I'm sure there's much, much more out there.

transylvanian hunger

You're opening a whole new can of worms there, friend.

Still, if we're going there, I played the latest Xasthur to my partner, who pointed out that it sounded like the Cocteau's "Garlands".

hee