While it may be unusual to review a single issue of a magazine, NME Originals’s Goth edition is focused enough to warrant critical consideration. Essentially, this one-shot publication is a compilation of articles, reviews, and interviews that ran in the British music magazine NME. The time period covered is 1976-1992 and the focus is almost exclusively on Bauhaus, The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees/The Creatures, The Cocteau Twins, Southern Death Cult/Death Cult/The Cult, The Birthday Party/Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, The Mission, All About Eve, Joy Division, Fields of the Nephilim, and Sisters of Mercy. On first glance that seems like a lot of bands, but upon further consideration the editors have done a disservice by excluding the smaller acts whose records are still much beloved by the goth community. Even the bands that are covered are a bit problematic: did anyone ever really consider The Birthday Party to be goth? Where are the articles on the post-Bauhaus groups and Peter Murphy’s solo work? And, in retrospect, is All About Eve relevant? Still, this rather expensive magazine is chock full of interesting bits and bobs, especially if you’re a die hard fan of one of the bands in the limelight. Be forewarned however, everything therein was written by British journalists, and British journalists are a snarky lot.

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