LA-based coldwave solo act Cold Cave present their latest album ‘Passion Depression’, a deathly Darkwave album portending the grisly end, and yet also a fortuitous beginning. Where depression is a pathology of unritualised mourning, and yet also is the stigmatised volte-face of new, better beginnings, so too do does this fulsome synthpop album teem with both shady omens and gleeful ecstasy.
‘She Reigns Down’ lays the formula bare, with avariciously sanguine vocals contrasting meanly to 8-bit beats. ‘Shadow Dance’ plays up the vocal reverb, in breaking contrast to the air-raid sirens and arpy progressions abounding the background. ‘Blackberries’ and ‘Hourglass’ continue to bulge with synth-popped gloom, yet also reveal a bitter revelation of vampiric desire on the part of the artist – “I want it all” – despite the closing note of bittersweet triumph.