The mark of a resilient band is its ability to expand on its style in such a way so as to be consistently progressive and yet maintain the core of their sound.  This is what Black Tape for a Blue Girl has achieved with their monumentally effectual new album, 10 neurotics.  The main component of Black Tape for a Blue Girl is Sam Rosenthal, who has striven to improve upon his band's original, gothically-tinged classical element.  As his musical direction changes, so does the band.

10 Neurotics is emotionally charged, theatrical, bold, raucous, heartbreaking, and beautiful, and is a grand and exciting musical direction for Black Tape for a Blue Girl. Traversing fresh musical ground including the evocative flavouring of Dark Cabaret, they never fully relinquish their well-known sensually provocative sound.

The opening track is a solid venture into that cabaret-styled genre with its theatrically raucous vocals and its piano-led cabaret sound.  Blacktape emerges that much more important for its willingness to fearlessly incorporate unexpected elements into its work. They add a stronger, more theatrical component; you feel as if you are watching a powerful stage show in motion.

As the album moves forward, you'll find that the music has not so much moved away from their known neo-classicism but has evolved.  Maintaining the sensually provocative music that Black Tape helped to pioneer,  Black Tape now adds a stronger, more theatrical component that thrusts it onto a new stage of awareness.  Looking at relationships and their chains, desires and their paths of destruction, and the rawness of emotions, Rosenthal has outfitted Black Tape for a Blue Girl with the power of an interactive stage show, yet still delivering on the promise of a metamorphosing band with its use of operatic vocals, flute, and gorgeous keyboard treatments.  Added to the sound are drums and bass that changes the sound of Black Tape for a Blue Girl for the better.

10 Neurotics is a great album! It may be Blacktape’s best!