The title and cover of self-styled “goth house” artist Baby Jane’s debut album, Otherworld, promises a liminal journey into a strange, unusual realm—and delivers. The combination of goth’s sensual darkness with the catchy hooks, melodic emphasis and shiny ethereality of house alchemizes into an album of self-destructive yearning and painful love, a passage through glistening darkness.

These songs are haunted—lyrically, by the need for love and the pull of lust, regardless of the dangers that come with it. This is best heard in the opening track, “Put Me in the Branks,” which draws on the “brank” or “scold’s bridle” used during medieval times to mute women who were accused of nagging or talking out of turn. In the song, the speaker wants to accept the object of their desire, despite knowing that doing so will put her into a figurative brank. This yearning is most heard and felt in the closing track, “Ghost Boy,” in the speaker’s desire for the eponymous spirit: “I’d let them put me in the grave / If I’d meet you there some way / I’m in love with a ghost boy.”

Sonically, the tracks lean more toward house than goth (lyrically, it’s the opposite), with a heavy pop influence that is best heard in bass-heavy “Girls With Guns.” “All the Saint of Notre Dame” is interesting for its melodramatic lyrics and a catchy chorus that will get stuck in your head. “Onyx,” however, thrives on a minimalist EBM beat that recalls Pixel Grip. “Spellbound” and “Acid Touch” are by far the most danceable, perfectly suited for your next local vampire rave.

Blending house and pop sounds with goth lyrics reflects the push/pull of dangerous love and lust, drawing listeners into the darkness of loneliness and the promise of fulfillment at a cost that, at least for now, is entirely worth it.

Photo Credit: Spotify