Though Bauhaus put a lot of creative energy into their four full-length albums, the band’s run of singles is a more effective way to track their creative progress in the early ’80s. That’s in part because some of their best tunes never appeared on albums. “Lagartija Nick” is one of the group’s most forceful and focused works; it ratifies the Bowie/Bolan fascination demonstrated on covers of “Telegram Sam” and “Ziggy Stardust.” Bauhaus could make huge, thunderous rock songs (“Dark Entries” and “Bela Lugosi’s Dead,” presented here in its original “Tomb Raider” mix), and they even made some atypically funky punk songs (“Watch That Grandad Go,” “The Sanity Assassin,” “In Fear of Dub”), but they were just as good when they were being flat-out weird. A deconstructed version of the ’60s pop song “Spirit in the Sky” is one of the best things here, while “Scopes” and “Paranoia, Paranoia” are as pleasing as they are peculiar. Even when they were assaultive, Bauhaus never lost sight of two of music’s most fundamental pleasure principles: fascinating sonics and insistent rhythms. (iTunes review)
