Gene Loves Jezebel ‎- Suspicion / Twenty Killer Hurts

Gene Loves Jezebel were never content to simply brood in the shadows. “Suspicion” captures the band’s early collision of gothic atmosphere, glam-rock theatricality, post-punk tension, and the psychedelic streak that made them such an unusual presence in the UK underground.

Released in 1983 on Situation Two, “Suspicion” comes from the formative period of Gene Loves Jezebel, when the band was still centered around twin brothers Michael and Jay Aston. Having relocated from Wales to London, they quickly developed a sound that shared some DNA with the emerging goth scene while remaining considerably more flamboyant and difficult to categorize.

“Suspicion” is built around that contrast. Jagged guitar and a restless rhythm section provide the framework while the Aston brothers’ dramatic vocals pull the song toward something stranger and more theatrical. There’s darkness here, but also a wiry energy inherited from punk and glam, qualities that separated Gene Loves Jezebel from the more austere post-punk surrounding them.

The reverse side, “Twenty Killer Hurts,” makes this 12-inch particularly representative of the band’s earliest sound. Raw and urgent, it belongs to the same pre-Promise period in which Gene Loves Jezebel were still defining the balance between gothic atmosphere, psychedelic guitar, glam decadence, and post-punk abrasion that would characterize their first recordings.

This original 1983 UK 12-inch pressing on Situation Two documents Gene Loves Jezebel before the increasingly polished alternative-rock production and international success that followed later in the decade. It’s a snapshot of a younger, stranger incarnation of the group, when their sound still carried the volatility of London’s early-’80s underground.

For listeners drawn to the darker side of Gene Loves Jezebel, Suspicion / Twenty Killer Hurts captures them close to the source: raw, theatrical, psychedelic, and steeped in the restless energy of early British gothic post-punk.