…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
Mad! cover

Mad!

Llwybr Llaethog
Pedra Do Espia cover

Pedra Do Espia

Itiberê Orquestra Familia
Certain Blacks cover

Certain Blacks

Art Ensemble of Chicago
The Boxing Mirror cover

The Boxing Mirror

Alejandro Escovedo
Orpheus the Lowdown cover

Orpheus the Lowdown

Andy Partridge, Peter Blegvad
Pop cover

Pop

Tones On Tail
Egon Bondy’s Happy Heart Club Banned cover

Egon Bondy’s Happy Heart Club Banned

The Plastic People of the Universe