Love And Rockets: Lift

Love And Rockets has made peace with its past. Its members' recently completed their participation in the American leg of the "Resurrection" tour as 3/4 of Bauhaus (the 1983 break-up of which ultimately spawned the band). Having finished this financially lucrative look back, Love And Rockets is moving forward, or at least continuing to move in the electronic direction the band started toward with 1994's release of Hot Trip To Heaven. That initial foray into electronics was derailed by American, the label which pushed the band into making the good but substantially safer Sweet F.A. Now on a new label, Love And Rockets has free reign to tinker and experiment. Lift, the album resulting from said tinkering is moderately successful, but no occasion to storm the stores. The title track is an instrumental bridge between the old and new, with haunting atmospherics giving way to a breezy dance number. The album then fluctuates between the highs of the buzzing and hypnotic "R.I.P. 20 C." and the city crawl of "Delicious Ocean" and the lows of the generic club bounce of "My Drug." Lift also features the unlikely pairing of the band with members of Luscious Jackson, who provide vocals, guitar and percussion on "Holy Fool." It's good that Love And Rockets is branching out instead of pointlessly treading water, but Lift isn't exactly the right mix. It proves that the band isn't yet toothless, but that electronica may not be the right genre for it.