…If I Die, I Die cover

…If I Die, I Die

Released

Having steadily carved out a particularly vivid, wired space for themselves in the unsettled jumble that was both UK and Irish post-punk fields - they were friends with U2 but very defiantly in their own space - on …If I Die, I Die, Virgin Prunes reached a dramatic apotheosis. “Baby Turns Blue” is the song that sums it up the best, but the combination of Gavin Friday’s vocal desperation and beyond-glam extremity and the band’s transforming of rock-as-such into a  kind of alien ritual at once made it a goth landmark while at the same time transcending the form.

Ned Raggett

Recommended by

Suggestions
Wish cover

Wish

The Cure
Third cover

Third

Portishead
Pedra Do Espia cover

Pedra Do Espia

Itiberê Orquestra Familia
Black Focus cover

Black Focus

Yussef Kamaal
Mysteries Unfold cover

Mysteries Unfold

Sophie Tassignon
Freedom Suite cover

Freedom Suite

David S. Ware Quartet
The Jean-Paul Sartre Experience cover

The Jean-Paul Sartre Experience

The Jean Paul Sartre Experience
Secrets of the Sun cover

Secrets of the Sun

Sun Ra & His Solar Arkestra