InGladAloneness

Dali's Car was a duo project of bassist Mick Karn (formerly of Japan) and vocalist Peter Murphy (formerly of Bauhaus); it came into existence in the mid-'80s, produced one unsuccessful album, and then fell apart amid mutual rancor. But in 2011 Karn and Murphy tried it again. Karn was terminally ill, and they only came up with three new songs. (The five tracks on this EP include a cover of Jacques Brel's "If You Go Away" and an arrangement of a traditional Turkish song.) Those who recall the group's earlier work will probably experience a familiar frustration: wishing that Murphy would knock off the pseudo-operatic vocalisms so that they can better hear the brilliant and utterly unique basslines that Karn keeps spinning out. The music itself is consistently both interesting and attractive, self-consciously "exotic" but so tonally and melodically inventive that its occasionally twee gestures are easily overlooked. But Murphy's vocal style is simultaneously silly and self-important, and he doesn't contribute a single worthwhile melody or memorable turn of phrase. For Mick Karn's fans, this EP constitutes a bittersweet and deeply flawed farewell, but it also shows that he was operating at the peak of his powers as a bass player even at the end of his protracted illness.