Somewhere back in the late '80s I went to an excellent triple-bill gig at the Leadmill in Sheffield: Birdland, Spacemen 3 and Miranda Sex Garden.
All three bands were good. Birdland, in particular, were stunning. They were first lauded and then quickly pilloried as a joke: I've never listened to any of their albums, which I understand didn't live up to their live performances, but the performance I saw was incredibly energising. Spacemen 3 weren't exactly energising, but they have (rightly) passed into legend for their drones. Miranda Sex Garden had, again, a different kind of schtick, but I remember being quite impressed by them as well.
It was that memory, twelve or thirteen years later, that prompted me to buy this CD (it wasn't cheap, either). Mistake. Whatever charm they had live is missing from this recording, which is cod goth S&M schlock. And they've dumped the medieval madrigal theme that they had when I saw them for Weimar cabaret decadence. I can barely be bothered to listen the whole way through (though, as it turns out, the last track is the best).
 MusicBrainz entry for this album
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