The Doom Patrol
Angel
There’s something noble about the Doom Patrol’s attempt to revive the spirit of the bygone era of industrial goth, yet they fail to inject the corpse with any personality of their own, thereby depriving it of an essential lifeforce. Not even a heaping dose of Joy Division/Depeche Mode-era depression can save this release from becoming another funeral for the New Wave undead. Yet the wildly inconsistent disc also suggests the duo might pull off their Frankenstein feat someday, since their killer blend of down-tempo beats and haunted vocals on "Lullabye" and "It Always Seemed Alive" make it evident that the rest of the album just lacks the same attention to detail. The average song, for example, runs nearly six minutes, entirely too long for these drum machine and keyboard indulgences. The glam-rocky "Air" and the take on Mortal Kombat techno, "Velocity Overkill," demonstrate that the Doom Patrol still needs a lot more work before their elixir will bring back the early-’80s pallid pulse.
Grade: C PLUS
Ryan Smith
