*** Love and Rockets

LIFT

(Red Ant)

Even as the goth nation gets its black panties in a bunch over the Bauhaus reunion, three-fourths of that quartet -- Daniel Ash, David J, and Kevin Haskins -- defuse any accusations of resting on their laurels by launching the seventh Love and Rockets album. Dilettantes who know only the group's hits ("So Alive," "Motorcycle") may dismiss the dance beats on Lift as evidence of opportunism, but the electronics remain in keeping with the band's stylistic evolution since 1994's Hot Trip to Heaven. Indeed, the current single, "Resurrection Hex" (available on a separate CD with mixes by Deep Dish, Mood II Swing, KMFDM and Keoki), is hardly their first club hit -- remember "Ball of Confusion"?

These seasoned pros should have an easier time than Crystal Method coming up with solid songs to anchor the grooves, yet the ideas here occasionally feel thin. "My Drug" rewrites Diana Ross's "Love Hangover" for ravers; "Bad for You" invokes Anthony Newley via David Bowie. And the guitar textures on "Too Much Choice" wouldn't be out of place in the Cocteau Twins. Regardless, the group get ample mileage on atmosphere alone, and thus the cuts that strip down to little else -- the mesmerizing "Deep Deep Down," "Party's Not Over" -- prove the most enduring.

-- Kurt B. Reighley