The Crushed Velvet Apocalypse

The Legendary Pink Dots hit an American underground audience in a big way with 1990’s The Crushed Velvet Apocalypse, appropriately enough given the sheer quality of the album, featuring a new lineup that was the debut of multi-instrumentalist Niels van Hoorn. The opening song “I Love You In Your Tragic Beauty,” a fragile folk/boulevardier tune, became one of their standards, leading into a varied album meditating on, indeed, apocalypse and renewal. The CD edition included the tracks from the Princess Coldheart EP, the 60s pop-tinged title track becoming another fan favorite.