The 1981 Listening Post - Siouxsie and the Banshees - Juju

 

Siouxsie and the Banshees - Juju

#295

By Chris Jackson

June 6 1981

Siouxsie and the Banshees

Juju

Genre: Gothy angsty drama

Allen’s Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Chris’ 3.5 out of 5.0

Highlights:

All of it? None of it?

Boy, this record was not made with me in mind. Certainly not single-digit-aged me upon its release and not late-40s me at the end of 2020.

Is it post-punk? I think so. Is it early goth? I think so. Am I sure that I actually think so? Maybe not.

I certainly know of the band Siouxsie and the Banshees by name, but I never delved into their work. I envision the band forming after a flyer went up on the high school bulletin board with pre-ripped phone number tags at the bottom (the majority of these would be pulled off angrily by the jocks and bullies, but a few would end up in the hands of those that were actually interested): WANT TO JOIN A BAND? COME SEE WHAT WE’RE ABOUT THIS TUESDAY AFTER DRAMA CLUB!

The guitar tones on this are super thin and wirey and, honestly, really not to my liking. The music feels dark in a way that makes me think they said, “Let’s make this one dark!” The vocals are delivered SO seriously and every song feels like “Sioux” is on the verge of a nervous breakdown or she’s about to murder her loser boyfriend or she hates her parents or all of the above. Again, I don’t think I’m really the target audience on this one…

That said, yeah, I stand by my rating of 3.5 out of 5.0 because I certainly see where others might really like and relate to some of this. I’m pretty open-minded when I listen to music that’s outside of my preferred genres and often can discover something I really love when I do, but this one just didn’t resonate with me. I think if you like a little dissonance, a lot of drama and female-fronted rock bands (and, ironically, I have enjoyed all of those things in music at one time or another) and you’re actually not familiar with this band or album, I’d say give it a shot. I must admit, I think they effectively captured what they wanted to capture with this.

If you don’t like those things at all…steer clear.

https://open.spotify.com/album/5OEum65e1HMGX51Ifu51Wb?si=gJgRXTjMQrKyrHIY7lrb7w

The 1980 Listening Post - Siouxie and the Banshees - Kaleidoscope

Siouxie and the Banshees - Kaleidoscope 

#307

by Thom Bowers

Siouxsie And The Banshees

Kaleidoscope
Genre: Goth

Allen’s Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Thom’s Rating: 2 out of 5

Highlights:
Desert Kisses
Paradise Place
Christine

Confession: I chose to review Kaleidoscope, out of the handful of choices I had been offered, specifically because despite having heard about Siouxsie And The Banshees for decades now, I had somehow never managed to listen to a single one of their songs. So have no context in which to place this record, other than it being an early-ish entry in the catalog.

From my understanding, the primary focus/appeal of the band was Siouxsie Sioux herself, her lyrics and her persona. Listening to this record seemed to bear that out, as the music itself left almost no impression on me at all...except for one element. A few tracks in, it hit me: "Wow, this drummer doesn't play like Stewart Copeland, but sounds EXACTLY like him." Lo and behold, turns out that Kaleidoscope was produced by Nigel Gray, who also produced the first three Police albums. So there's that.

Other than that, it's pretty blah on the musical side. No other instrments stand out. The song-songs are craftless, and the anti-songs aren't especially adventurous.  A lot of tracks come off as half-baked demos, with no sense of building something in between their arbitrary beginnings and endings.  There are islands of promise poking up through the morass ("Desert Kisses" is evocatively moody, "Christine" and "Paradise Place" kinda almost have hooky choruses) but I found it mostly flat and colorless overall.

But then we come to Sioux herself, and...yeah. I hear it. There are definitely the makings of a compelling performer here, with a strong (if inconsistently employed) voice and sharp lyrical point of view. And that's just on record; I'll bet her vibe translated to the stage like gangbusters, making her the gothy misfit role model that I've been hearing so much praise for through the years. (And likely inspiring the multitide of alt-rock garage bands plodding through their shitty off-brand version of "Hybrid" at every other party I attended in college in the early 90s, but I won't hold that against her.)

She seems cool. She just needed a better team around her, at least at this stage of her career.

So, help me out, Postheads: which SatB records should I sample to get the real stuff? This can't be as good as it got, right? 

https://open.spotify.com/album/5jynqY8ZyDoeqrIfYSwF8P?si=izNxHb_wQnaquNIyaez0Ww

The 1986 Listening Post - Siouxie and the Banshees - Tinderbox

Siouxie and the Banshees - Tinderbox

#143/1308

April 21 1986

Siouxie and the Banshees

Tinderbox

Genre: Rock

4.5 out of 5

Highlights:

This Unrest

Cities in Dust

Party’s Fall

How do you even categorize Siouxie? If the Cure and Kate Bush got together to write songs and kate went with Robert’s more poppy inclinations?

Ok, why not? I’ll admit, part of the excitement of this project has been the ability to really go back and discover this band who I never really listened to but knew of and associated with Adam Ant and Sex Pistols, after all, she came from that place, right? 

And the results have been extremely rewarding. I really get it. (Absent A Kiss in the Dreamhouse which I really didn’t care for). Is this Haeyna? No. It’s not Juju or Kaleidescope. But it’s not supposed to be. Artists are supposed to grow (looking at you, glam metal/death metal) and by pumping up the percussion, they really get there for me. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/tinderbox-remastered-expanded/1443841582

Siouxie and the Banshees - Hyaena

Siouxie and the Banshees - Hyaena

#145

June 8 1984

Siouxie and the Banshees

Hyæna

4.25 out of 5

Highlights: 

Dazzle

Bring Me the Head of the Preacher Man

Exploding with the goth symphony, “Dazzle”, Hyæna is a revelation. Building on Juju and leaving theist album, the forgettable Kiss in the Dreamhouse, in the dust, Hyæna is desperation with rhythm. It’s so hard for me to believe that Adam Ant and Siouxie came from the same place. Shedding Marco Pirroni was great for Siouxie and also great for Adam for completely different reasons. Robert Smith co-wrote this album and it more than makes up for the garbage that was The Top. 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/hyaena-remastered-and-expanded/948113145

The 1983 Listening Post - The Glove - Blue Sunshine

The Glove - Blue Sunshine

8/23/1983

The Glove

Blue Sunshine

4.75 out of 5

Highlights:

Like an Animal

Sex Eye Makeup

Punish Me With Kisses

This Green City

Orgy

Wasn’t this a big deal when it came out? Robert Smith’s side project?

If someone said, “What if The Cure and Siouxie and the Banshees teamed up?” This is exactly what it should sound like.

Because that is EXACTLY what it is. Robert Smith and Steven Severin’s “supergroup” of sorts.

Remarkably, and probably thanks to Eric the Record Thug, I think I’ve heard every track before. A lot more than once. And I KNOW that I tried to recreate the drum beat on “Punish Me With Kisses” on Yeast Infection’s “Sex Dog”. Or that other track we tried to lay down. It’s all so familiar. Is this on heavy rotation on Sirius??

I adore this album and I’m so glad I got to revisit in 36 years later.

The 1983 Listening Post - The Creatures - Feast

The Creatures - Feast

May 15 1983
The Creatures
Feast
4.75 out of 5

Highlights:
Morning Dawning
Sky Train
A Struttering Rooster
Flesh

I didn’t care much for A Kiss in the Dreamhouse. This is a vast improvement.
Terrifying. Beautiful. Ugly. Soothing. This is a dense and rewarding piece of wonder.

Feast was included in the compilation “A Bestiary Of”, so if you want to hear it in it’s entirety, it’s best to get the track list and make a playlist from that