…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
Shadow Plays cover

Shadow Plays

Craig Taborn
Symbol Systems cover

Symbol Systems

Matthew Shipp
Debut cover

Debut

Björk
Learn to Talk cover

Learn to Talk

Skeleton Crew, Tom Cora, Fred Frith
Alles Wieder Offen cover

Alles Wieder Offen

Einstürzende Neubauten
Joy cover

Joy

Karin Krog
1961 cover

1961

Jimmy Giuffre, Paul Bley, Steve Swallow
The  Eleventh Hour cover

The Eleventh Hour

Evan Parker Electro-Acoustic Ensemble