2 out of 5

Label: Metropolis

Producer: Rudy Ratzinger

Maybe the ship had sailed by this point, but Body Census is almost totally lacking.  Even the album art is rather lackluster, no grit to it.  If not for Rudy’s reliable production chops and a couple good beats, this record would come across as exactly what you’d make fun of goth kids for listening to (’cause that’s how we spend our spare time, yes?).  There’s even a track called ‘You Are a Goth,’ which I’m totally not sure if I’m supposed to be taking seriously or not.  It’s hard to tell in English-as-a-second-language World, but this being at least a decade since Rudy thumped onto the scene, I’d think he’d be able to inject a bit more knowing of a wink to tip me off.  ‘Body Census’ isn’t so horrible (outside of those more embarassing tracks like ‘Goth’ that just go straight for the black fingernailed teenager lyrics), it just leans VERY heavily on dance, and though Rudy never stretched too far for lyrical content outside of the cynical cesspool, we would normally at least get a couple variations on a theme per song, whereas here it’s definitely structured just to be spun up in Club Dead, one verse and chorus repeating, and repeating.  Some of :wump:s dancier stuff gets angrified by the mixing style, which is heavy and dirty, but it’s fairly clean here.  Pretty accessible.  Rudy peeks through here and there – the lead track is a good enough head bobber without leaning too far into club mix, and ‘Homo Gotikus Industrialis’ – ignoring the title – reminds us that Ratzinger can compose if he wants to.  Listenable, and, as singles, perhaps gets you going, but as an album it’s fairly tedious.