Managing the sometimes hard-to-negotiate trick of expanding their sound while retaining all the qualities which got them attention to begin with, on Mask the members of Bauhaus consciously stretched themselves into newer areas of music and performance, resulting in an album that was arguably even better than the band's almost flawless debut. More familiar sides of the band were apparent from the get-go; opening number Hair of the Dog, one of the band's best songs, starts with a double-tracked squalling guitar solo before turning into a stomping, surging flow, carefully paced by sudden silences and equally sudden returns to the music, while Murphy details cases of mental addictions in pithy phrases. The energy wasn't all just explosive angst and despair, though; the one-two punches of Kick in the Eye and In Fear of Fear have as much hip-shaking groove and upbeat swing to them as portentous gloom (Ash's sax skronk on the latter, as well as on the similarly sharp Dancing, is a particularly nice touch). Elsewhere, numerous flashes of the band's quirky sense of humor -- something often missed by both fanatical followers and negative critics both -- make an appearance; perhaps most amusing is the dry spoken-word lyric beginning Of Lillies and Remains, as David J details a goofily grotesque situation as much Edward Gorey as Edgar Allen Poe. Add to that three of the most dramatic things the band ever recorded -- the charging, keyboard-accompanied The Passion of Lovers, the slow, dark fairy-tale-gone-wrong Hollow Hills, and the wracked, trudging title track, where the sudden appearance of an acoustic guitar turns a great song into a near-perfect blend of ugliness and sheer beauty -- and the end result was a perfect trouncing of the sophomore-slump myth. ~ Ned Raggett, Rovi

1		Hair of the Dog
2		Passion of Lovers
3		Of Lillies and Remains
4		Dancing
5		Hollow Hills
6		Kick in the Eye 2
7		In Fear of Fear
8		Muscle in Plastic
9		The Man With the X-Ray Eyes
10		Mask
11		In Fear of Dub
12		Ear Wax
13		Harry
14		Medley
15		Satori

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