The 1982 Listening Post - The Virgin Prunes - ...If I Die, I Die

 Reviewed by Allen Lulu / LISTENING POST DISCOVERY

Released: November 4 1982 The Virgin Prunes ...If I Die, I Die Genre: Dark Wave Rating: 4.25 out of 5 Highlights: Decline And Fall Sweethome Under White Clouds Theme For Thought You know what we forget? That The Edge has a brother. That that brother, Dik, was a founding member of U2, that he was edged out of the band (he he he) and that he would go on to form this post-rock experimental weirdness. Boy, that second track, “Decline and Fall” sounds a LOT like “Kokoku” by Laurie Anderson and I have to wonder if she was influenced by it/interpolated it. This is a haunting, gothic, dark and wet record that is also, bizarrely, campy and self knowing. Look at that single, “Baby Turns Blue”, which is actually the least successful track on the album. But it’s also the most campy and fun. On a record that seems, at first glance, to be whole heartedly against having fun of any kind.