Big Electric Cat Title: Dreams of a Mad King Label: Cleopatra Well, this ain't awful, but it's hardly A-file material. A CD dominated by a kind of fast upbeat gothic sound, that unfortunately often has a kind of 80s synth pop feel. Lots of farily light sounding guitar, vocals that sound like Peter Murphy/Shriekback when they're good, but really cheesy and forced when they're bad. And the lyrics... well, as Ed might say, you often wish they were distorted more (cut 3 actually has some "WhoOa Whoa Whoa"s on it). Light bouncy gothic: 7, 8, 9, 10, 4 maybe 1, 2. Slow, basic goth: 6 80s synthpop: 5 -- JB (doom) 1 Christabel Very strummy. Light sounding, only mildly gothic. 2 Red Roses Harder sound, in the direction of industrial-goth, but it doesn't get that far away from rock. "I was raised on a diet of religion and sex." 3 Sapphire Faster rock. Too many cheesy touches. "WhoOoa Whoa Whoa"? 4 Orchid Dreaming Light guitar, fast beat, interesting vox (slightly whispery). "Down the shadowed steps..." "So taste the orchids dreaming." ".. through everything you hold" "To fade away the moment that you've always sacrificed." "...so deep inside your eyes/forever sometimes never/... blah blah lies" "I've seen this tired emotion and watched it fail and burn." 5 Paris Skyes A nice example of 80s synth pop sythesized in the 90s. "... too dance across the ocean until the end of time" " It's hard to realize that I'm ... under Paris skys" Kinda silly lyrics. 6 Winter Room Slow, more gothic than most. Vox kind of like Peter Murphy. "it's not so easy, sometimes it's not so... " 7 Bed of Nails Kind of fast, bouncy sounding gothic "I woke up on a bed of nails, the walls keep tumbling down, your love it never fails, it pushed me to the ground..." 8 Twisting Man Another fast bouncy goth piece, nice whispery sinister vocals. 9 Rebecca broadcast sample intro, another fast bouncy goth thing. Some of the best lyrics on this one? "dressed and drowning silver voices ask the time. across the waves and mirrored caves reasons lost in rhyme darkness calling out the razor skys search empty ways to pass away the time" 10 Instro Fast, bit harder than the last four. Lyrics not bad... about being out of step with the mainstream? Just going through the motions? SOund is kind of awful though. Cheesy. "You're all standing in the corner/what's the matter nothing happens" "You're all dancing out of step now/there's no rhtym in your.." "your all dressing out of fashion..." "your a piece and part of the crowd, no one can deny." 1 Christabel 2 Red Roses 3 Sapphire 4 Orchid Dreaming 5 Paris Skyes 6 Winter Room 7 Bed of Nails 8 Twisting Man 9 Rebecca 10 Instro