Darkwave and sub-genres (related) according to RYM

A bit of a niche poll perhaps. Similar to Saperlipopette!'s RYM polls this is the top 25 albums in the Rate Your Music chart that I get for Darkwave as a genre if I include subgenres. Remove the subgenres and I lose Cocteau Twins for instance. I don't want to lose Cocteau Twins. Obviously lots of repetition of acts: Cocteau Twins (4 albums), Dead Can Dance (5, no 6, albums), Lingua Ignota (4), two Chelsea Wolfe albums.

Here is the chart I took this from: https://rateyourmusic.com/charts/top/album/all-time/g:darkwave/

You don't have to know more than one album to vote in this poll (just vote for that one album if you like it). There are several albums here that I have not heard {EDIT: now I have at least excerpts of all tracks}, but I will check those out {more properly} in time.

Vote for up to five albums, but I ask for no more than one vote per artist/band.

For me (in no particular order):

Cocteau Twins - Head Over Heels
Anna von Hausswolff - Dead Magic
Lingua Ignota - Caligula
Dead Can Dance - Spleen and Ideal
Chelsea Wolfe - Pain Is Beauty

EDIT: I'm adding a playlist with one track I like from each of these albums (this is my favourite part of making such polls).



https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXcp9fYc6K4JUMuoy1s5ZcQEAv6q5PKGH

I noticed that that 24th album is already different at RYM. Der Golem - Zmet had no votes and I am changing it to the current one at RYM, Pieter Nooten & Michael Brook's Sleeps With the Fishes. I far, far prefer that album and fits the kind of music I was going for way better. As I have been listening through the albums, that Coil is so good per my current interests (especially the first and final tracks). I too often confuse the title with The Age of Nipples, but it kind of fits because this is very good for my tastes and the cream always rises to the top (course one could say it sucks based on that name). That Cages album is a standout for me of the ones I did not yet know. The singer reminds me of Bjork, and that's good thing in my books. I also hear similarities to Anna von Hausswolff, Cocteau Twins, some Lingua Ignota.

Edited by Logan - June 13 2023 at 14:43

I used to love 'The Cocteau Twins' back in the day. 

Dead Can Dance - Anastasis

Anna von Hausswolff - Dead Magic

I have to come back to this. Many old favorites, and several new. I really have to think some first.

While Cocteau Twins has the number one album here, of course Dead Can Dance dominates the list in number of albums. It actually is missing what has been my most-listened to DCD album in recent times, which is the debut (great album imo). And as for Cocteau Twins, I prefer the considerably lesser rated Garlands (the debut) to Victorialand and Blue Bell Knoll... at least at this time -- that debut feels underrated to me, meaning my tastes are better than those who don't like it as much as me. My first big CT love was Heaven or Las Vegas, but these days I am more drawn to the more gothic rock and post-punk early material than the Dream Pop, and more ethereal wave music.

I like music from all of these albums, I guess the one that has appealed the least is Malice Mizer - Bara no Seido based on a first listen. If you haven't checked out Cages' Inside a Ringing Chord, then I think you might appreciate it.

Ugh, with the misclick of a mouse button (wanted to copy the text but deleted it all instead) I just lost a long post. Maybe I can say most of the same in somewhat fewer words.

This is not an area I became very familiar with until quite recent years. I have known Dead Can Dance for the past decade or so (more actually, but I only really got into about five, sevn? years ago thanks to PA forum discussion -- has had quite a few fans here). While I was familiar with the name Cocteau Twins going back to the 80s, it wasn't until quite recently that I really got into the music and started exploring the albums. Better late than never. For the modern ones, Lingua Ignota I got into because of a topic at PA not that long ago, and it just blew my little mind away and led to me exploring more music with similar qualities (Uboa is one I like that I might recommend to some into Lingua Ignota). Chelsea Wolfe I might have got into because of my love of Anna von Hausswolff (a Wolfe and a ****wolff) -- they have some very similar music (particularly two tracks, Anna's was first). I love Anna von H's Ceremony, The Miraculous and Dead Magic. Those are three of my favourite albums in modern Crossover Prog and in music generally. It's somewhat interesting to me that at RateYourMusic, Dead Magic has 10,574 ratings, and is ranked at #12 for 2018 in the all-music chart. At Prog Archives, it is at number 14 with 164 ratings (until recently it was ranked considerably lower). Now RYM has a much huger userbase and so often gets way, way more ratings for albums but that 10, 410 ratings difference is very considerable (especially when thinking of it in certain percentage values). By comparison, All Traps on Earth's A Drop of Light is the number one of 2018 at PA and has 558 ratings. At RYM that album has 605 ratings, which is only forty-seven more ratings than at PA. I think that All Traps on Earth album would not have as broad appeal, especially to those who like art music but not so much Prog-proper music. By the way, for one who likes Chelsea Wolfe, I would suggest Emma Ruth Rundle.

Here is how RateYourMusic describes/ defines Dark Wave:

rateyourmusic wrote: Darkwave is a broad style of music that emerged alongside New Wave and Post-Punk across Europe in the late 1970s and early 1980s, particularly in the United Kingdom. It is characterized by a dark, introspective and sorrowful atmosphere reminiscent of Gothic Rock, and heavily utilizes Electronic influences, particularly Synthpop. Although the genre started as a style of post-punk, artists would eventually work outside of Rock idioms making greater use of synthesizers and drum machines, and even adding elements of Post-Industrial and Western Classical Music into their works. The genre’s name was initially coined as a way to describe the emergence of darker and gloomier New Wave music. Early pioneers include Cocteau Twins, Soft Cell, and Depeche Mode as they would incorporate synthesized sounds with introspective lyrics, minor key tonality, and an often gothic atmosphere into their music. Bands such as Dead Can Dance, This Mortal Coil, and the aforementioned Cocteau Twins would distance the genre even further from its new wave roots, creating offshoots such as Ethereal Wave and Neoclassical Darkwave.

Edited by Logan - June 14 2023 at 12:51

Thanks, Cristi, listening now and appreciating it. More like dance music than most Darkwave I have heard -- I used to be a big clubber; not of seals, I hasten to add, in fact I had my two minutes of fame with a syndicated latter I wrote as a child about stopping (or at least limiting) the seal hunt. I just hate to think that if I mention myself being a clubber people assume that I go around clubbing seals, or potential mates as in a caveman cartoon I once saw. Back to the track you posted, my first impressions are that it rather reminds me of Giorgio Moroder meets Pet Shop Boys.

Logan wrote: Thanks, Cristi, listening now and appreciating it. More like dance music than most Darkwave I have heard -- I used to be a big clubber; not of seals, I hasten to add, in fact I had my two minutes of fame with a syndicated latter I wrote as a child about stopping (or at least limiting) the seal hunt. I just hate to think that if I mention myself being a clubber people assume that I go around clubbing seals, or potential mates as in a caveman cartoon I once saw. Back to the track you posted, my first impressions are that it rather reminds me of Giorgio Moroder meets Pet Shop Boys.

Edited by Cristi - June 14 2023 at 11:22

Logan wrote: Cristi wrote: Logan wrote: Thanks, Cristi, listening now and appreciating it. More like dance music than most Darkwave I have heard -- I used to be a big clubber; not of seals, I hasten to add, in fact I had my two minutes of fame with a syndicated letter I wrote as a child about stopping (or at least limiting) the seal hunt. I just hate to think that if I mention myself being a clubber people assume that I go around clubbing seals, or potential mates as in a caveman cartoon I once saw. Back to the track you posted, my first impressions are that it rather reminds me of Giorgio Moroder meets Pet Shop Boys. darkwave mixes well with gothic rock or gothic metal. I would not call that club music. Maybe a goth club in Germany...  I've been to some more underground clubs which are pretty darned dark, with dark music and just a dark atmosphere over all. This kind of music would not have been out of place, even if it would have been out of time since I frequented clubs in the 90s.

Edited by Cristi - June 14 2023 at 11:39