George Starostin's Reviews

SIOUXSIE & THE BANSHEES

READER COMMENTS SECTION

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Introduction

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ALBUMS
THE SCREAM

Greg Bougopoulos <bougops@bu.edu> (12.03.2001)

Nice review George of The Scream. I pretty much agree with you here, as I find this to be, by far, the best album Siouxsie & The Banshees released. Whereas the band got bogged down with artiness and production on their post McKay material, on here they recorded some songs that sounded absolutely urgent, and forward-looking. The lyrics are a really strange mix, and though Joy Division's Ian Curtis would reveal himself one year later as post-punk's great moody lyricist, Sioux and Severin do a pretty interesting job with theirs. And the band have a pretty unique identity as one of the few (if only) bands to write an anti-smoking song. I'll give this a 4.5 as well.

Andrew Broughton <andy.broughton@rmplc.co.uk> (05.05.2001)

An epoch-defining masterpiece, no less - and 'Switch' is far more substantial than you give it credit for.

Kitschy Pink <kitsch@doramail.com> (06.06.2004)

I completely disagree with you. Even though i have merely checked 3 of their albums, i find The Scream utterly perfect and quite unlike the disappointing Kaleidoscope. Songs fail in nothing whatsoever: from "Pure" to "Switch" it rollersteams you right into Auschwitz and never stops chugging like a terrible obsessive nazi machine. I discovered the album a year and a half ago and damn myself for never paying attention to them during adolescence.

(Back then the goths i knew when i was 14 or so were far more into late Siouxsie and crap stuff like Fields of the Nephilim or whatever they were called, so no wonder i steered clear from the band like the plague and kept listening to the Mondays and Ride.)

I cannot fully convey my affinity for this work: if it were released today i would call it brilliant. The fact it was released in 1978 is miraculous! This is not goth: it's merely amazing music, something Stravinsky and Richard Strauss during "Elektra" would be proud to call their own. The guitars DO sound marvellous, like steel and glass crackling and sliding into each other sending a hypnotic shower of metal sparks. This is a claustrophobic album sculpted and hammered in the psychiatric ward of a steelwork factory. This is the sort of purity genocides are created from.

I urge you to rate this work 5/5 or 10/10 and add "PERFECT"! :)


JOIN HANDS

Donatella DONATI <don138@tiscalinet.it> (02.06.2002)

I'm afraid I have to disagree with your review entirely. When I first bought this album in 1979, I must admit I was disappointed with the "The Lord's Prayer", especially as a couple of new tracks had apparently been left off to make room for it. However, I now think this is one of Siouxsie's most underrated records, and far more "Gothic" than the dreary, clichéd "Goth" avalanche that followed in the early 80s. This claustrophobic album is the musical equivalent of Edgar Allan Poe or AIP's 60s horror movies like "The Premature Burial" or "The Oblong Box". 23 years later I still listen to it several times a week. A cobweb-covered treasure that's waiting to be rediscovered.

Best tracks: 'Poppy Day', 'Placebo Effect' (great riff), 'Icon', 'Premature Burial' and 'Playground Twist'

Steph <shootingsun@comcast.net> (24.06.2002)

An excellent album of world-weary, post-punk dreariness. Released before being perfected, the album is but one of the many moods of the Banshees' spinning palate.


KALEIDOSCOPE

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JUJU

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A KISS IN THE DREAMHOUSE

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HYAENA

Vroomanite <Vroomanite@cox.net> (06.12.2002)

I don't know what you're smoking, Hyaena is an EXCELLENT album. That's pretty much all I have to say, cheers.

Baloo looloo <baloolooloo@yahoo.com> (22.01.2006)

Hyaena is perhaps the best album from Siouxsie and the Banshees, together with Robert Smith they made possible one of the best neo-psycadelic albums ever. The album has some tones of gloom atmosphere and also the "Dazzle" and "Running Town" are masterpiece, i dont know why some people dont like that album, this how Siouxsie and the Banshees and The Cure must sound. The album has so many musical layers that grabs from end to end.


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