The 69 Eyes – ‘X’ Digipak

The 69 Eyes are one the best goth bands to ever grace music. They are the only great goth rock band besides the classics of Bauhaus, The Cure, and Siouxsie and the Banshees.

The gothic themes are thick in their songs, but what is great about The 69 Eyes is that they get the entire trajectory of goth rock. Unlike so many people in clubs who take themselves far too seriously, The 69 Eyes see rock tradition in what they do, and they express irony and humour in their songwriting.

The songs are about death, excess, darkness, and fatal romance, but they are more aware than the vast majority of bands that all of that is proper rock and roll. It is rock music brought back to its subversive and pessimistic roots of wanting to live in the dark in clubs with beer and like-minded people without much desire to make mainstream society happy, and that is true rock and roll.