C/D: Siouxsie & The Banshees

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Last night all of a sudden I decided I had to hear this album again. I knew I had it on cassette awhile back, so I searched all over for it but no dice. So I went out today and found it cheap on CD.

Overall, I really liked it a lot at the time. What a nice comeback for them after Peek a Boo and all that mess. But there were definitely a few dud songs on it, too. Certainly "Fear (of The Unknown)" fails to work on any level. Still, I think it's an extraordinary album for them.

― The Silent Disco of Glastonbury (Bimble...), Sunday, 26 June 2005 01:23 (twenty years ago)

I never thought it was terrible at all by any means. Some spots are weaker but not really worth destroying or kicking out of bed. Half-classic, maybe.

― Ian Riese-Moraine eats nation-states for breakfast! (Eastern Mantra), Sunday, 26 June 2005 01:26 (twenty years ago)

Trivia bit -- Siouxsie mentioned a year after the album's release that "Shadowtime" is in part a specific tribute to Roxy Music's "For Your Pleasure' (the song in particular rather than the album as a whole).

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 26 June 2005 01:40 (twenty years ago)

Really? That actually makes sense.

― Ian Riese-Moraine eats nation-states for breakfast! (Eastern Mantra), Sunday, 26 June 2005 01:46 (twenty years ago)

Maybe not a cross-the-board classic, but "Kiss them For Me" is absolutely untouchable and "The Ghost in You" is simply sublime.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Sunday, 26 June 2005 02:14 (twenty years ago)

Dud. Synthesized, arhythmic dreck. Reminds me a lot of the P-Furs around "Midnight to Midnight."

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Sunday, 26 June 2005 14:00 (twenty years ago)

D-U-D, although "The Rapture" was a very nice comeback.

― Die Emanzipation von Baaderonixx (redukt) (Fabfunk), Sunday, 26 June 2005 15:06 (twenty years ago)

This album has that generic 80s sound, it doesn't really grab me like the first 3 albums. I have a theory about bands from the early 80s--I like their first 3 albums and then it's like they become less distinctive, more generic, and I don't like them any more.

It's not the like album is awful and I'd run screaming if someone put it on, but I wouldn't go out of my way to hear it.

― Orbit (Orbit), Sunday, 26 June 2005 16:10 (twenty years ago)

Dud. Synthesized, arhythmic dreck.

This from a man who claims "We Are the World" gives him chills.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Sunday, 26 June 2005 16:33 (twenty years ago)

You just made Diet Pepsi come out of my nose!

― Orbit (Orbit), Sunday, 26 June 2005 16:36 (twenty years ago)

"This from a man who claims "We Are the World" gives him chills."

You betcha!

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Sunday, 26 June 2005 16:42 (twenty years ago)

Actually, maybe I should hear the album again, since the last time it's been out of my closet was sometime in late '91. I do remember liking "The Ghost in You" even though it's not as great as the P-Furs song; and the remix of "Fear (Of The Unknown)" on that Twice Upon A Time comp is ok too.

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Sunday, 26 June 2005 16:46 (twenty years ago)

Alex in NYC: Making Diet Pepsi come out of people's noses everywhere.

This album has that generic 80s sound, it doesn't really grab me like the first 3 albums.

Well it's interesting you say that because I think it has a bit of an 80's sound as well. But let's be fair, it's from 1991!

I can't understand why many of the songs on this thing are just making me all blubbery and weepy like a big girl right now. It's really quite funny, not like me at all.

― The Silent Disco of Glastonbury (Bimble...), Sunday, 26 June 2005 19:41 (twenty years ago)

ur in touch w.yr inner bimble!!

― mark s (mark s), Sunday, 26 June 2005 19:54 (twenty years ago)

i am putty in la sioux's hands at ALL times and wd probably defend hyaena to make a point :(

― mark s (mark s), Sunday, 26 June 2005 20:03 (twenty years ago)

i love hyaena. what's wrong with hyaena???

i wish i still had a copy of the covers album. i really wanna hear yer lost little girl right now.

― scott seward (scott seward), Sunday, 26 June 2005 21:14 (twenty years ago)

actually, i was listening to hyaena for the first time in a long time and i couldn't believe how bad dazzle sounded. not the song - which i love- but the production. i didn't remember it being so very muffled. what did they wrap around the drums, tarpaper? still one of my fave psych albums of the 80's.

― scott seward (scott seward), Sunday, 26 June 2005 21:20 (twenty years ago)

That's very true, Scott. Even on the Twice Upon A Time comp, all those Hyaena songs sound like shit.

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Sunday, 26 June 2005 21:20 (twenty years ago)

maybe i shd listen to hyaena again

i just relistened to superstition bcz of this thread and it is v.patchy: i think i remember listening lots in 1991 TRYING to like the filler songs, then stopped listening and as time passed learned to kid myself i did like em

― mark s (mark s), Sunday, 26 June 2005 21:30 (twenty years ago)

i think this was the album where i bid my fond adieu to ms. sioux and her krew.

― scott seward (scott seward), Sunday, 26 June 2005 21:33 (twenty years ago)

i did dig kiss them for me a bunch though. maybe i still have the twelve inch somewhere. i seem to recall a rockin' extended mix.

― scott seward (scott seward), Sunday, 26 June 2005 21:34 (twenty years ago)

They're remastering all the albums and all, so hope merrily.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 26 June 2005 21:35 (twenty years ago)

who produced arabian knights? that twelve inch is one of the best sounding records ever! the brit twelve inch single. sounds heavenly. the guitars are amazing on that.

― scott seward (scott seward), Sunday, 26 June 2005 21:47 (twenty years ago)

the rapture is great scott!!

― mark s (mark s), Sunday, 26 June 2005 21:50 (twenty years ago)

i never even heard it! i will buy it if i see it. i must have been absent that day.

― scott seward (scott seward), Sunday, 26 June 2005 21:54 (twenty years ago)

i mean, i pretty much love everything up to and including that covers album. i don't think i ever owned peepshow. i liked peek-a-boo though.

― scott seward (scott seward), Sunday, 26 June 2005 21:57 (twenty years ago)

The Rapture = spiffy. You owe it to yourself.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 26 June 2005 21:58 (twenty years ago)

The covers album was my favorite for awhile, maybe because it was my introduction (and my intro to Roxy Music, John Cale, et al).

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Sunday, 26 June 2005 23:51 (twenty years ago)

Strangely enough, Superstition was my introduction to Siouxsie albums proper, after hearing "Cities in Dust." Still love a lot of the songs, though wouldn't rate high the slightly dated feel of some of the dancier tracks. "The Ghost In You" is definitely one of their best songs, though. Beautiful imagery, and ultimately uplifting, rather than the more gut-punchingly honest, bare description of songs like "Peek-A-Boo" ...

"You awoke in a burning paperhouse
from the infinite fields
of dreamless sleep
You return .. to Tiananmen,
an eyewitness in a shroud,
to see them fall, feel them yield,
reliving the terror of the crowd ... "

― Dare, Monday, 27 June 2005 07:06 (twenty years ago)

I remember liking 'Got to Get Up' on this.

― Die Emanzipation von Baaderonixx (redukt) (Fabfunk), Monday, 27 June 2005 07:12 (twenty years ago)

Listened to a bit of Superstiion on the way to work this morning, and had a very hard time restraining myself from doing a wavey arm dance in the middle of 6th Avenue when "Kiss Them for Me" came on.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 27 June 2005 18:38 (twenty years ago)

I love this album but I can only remember "Kiss Them For Me", "Shadowtime", "Fear (Of The Unknown)", "Got To Get Up" and "The Ghost In You" right now. What else was on this?

PS: Most underappreciated Banshees song = "Burn-Up" off Peek-A-Boo

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 27 June 2005 18:42 (twenty years ago)

"Ornaments of Gold" on Peek-A-Boo is rapturously swoon-worthy as well.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 27 June 2005 18:43 (twenty years ago)

"Face to Face", meanwhile, is so utterly, tragically beautiful that it makes me cry.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 27 June 2005 18:43 (twenty years ago)

But lots of people totally love and namecheck "Ornaments Of Gold"! I wouldn't say that song is underappreciated at all.

"Face To Face" isn't on Superstition, is it???

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 27 June 2005 18:45 (twenty years ago)

But lots of people totally love and namecheck "Ornaments Of Gold"! I wouldn't say that song is underappreciated at all.

Oh, i wasn't suggesting it was unappreciated. I was just citing my appreciation for it.

"Face To Face" isn't on Superstition, is it???

No. It was originally on the soundtrack to the abortive Batman Returns film (which sucked from a giant tureen of lameness). It's now available on Twice Upon a Time and possibly that needless greatest hits that came out a couple years back.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 27 June 2005 18:51 (twenty years ago)

Yay the "Face to Face."

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 27 June 2005 18:52 (twenty years ago)

I almost bought that soundtrack solely for "Face To Face".

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 27 June 2005 18:52 (twenty years ago)

"Face to Face" is so fucking brilliant that it almost deserves its own goddamn thread.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 27 June 2005 18:53 (twenty years ago)

Haha, i did buy the soundtrack only for "Fact to Face".

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 27 June 2005 18:53 (twenty years ago)

Face

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 27 June 2005 18:53 (twenty years ago)

Returns had the awful/awesome U2 song on it, didn't it? And the Smashing Pumpkins song?

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 27 June 2005 18:58 (twenty years ago)

No, that was the third one (Forever?) with the Riddler.....Massive Attack had a track on it as well.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 27 June 2005 19:00 (twenty years ago)

Ah. I need to get that soundtrack.

Who was on Returns then? Or was that the one that was all Elfman aside from the Siouxsie song?

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 27 June 2005 19:01 (twenty years ago)

Actually I'm conflating Forever and & Robin. HELLO ITUNES.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 27 June 2005 19:03 (twenty years ago)

I think Siouxsie was the only non-Elfman contributor to the second one.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 27 June 2005 19:05 (twenty years ago)

Speaking of which, don't overlook 'Little Sister' -- which sounds almost like, um ... the younger sibling of 'Face to Face.'

― bkjj40a (bkjj40a), Monday, 27 June 2005 20:35 (twenty years ago)

Little Sister might be my favorite song on Superstition which I think is, overall, fairly weak. It is not without its moments though. Whenever I am struggling to get out of bed I always get 'Got To Get Up' in my head, which I hate, because I don't really care for that song.

― Pete Baumann, Tuesday, 28 June 2005 12:56 (twenty years ago)

"Little Sister" is completely awesome.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 28 June 2005 12:59 (twenty years ago)

I believe this was the first proper compact disc I ever purchased.

― nabisco (nabisco), Tuesday, 28 June 2005 15:45 (twenty years ago)

seven years pass...

First time listening since early '92!

Wow – Stephen Hague really hagueifies it.

― A deeper shade of lol (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 14 May 2013 15:24 (twelve years ago)

Rather. I can't believe they did "Got to Get Up" with a straight face.

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 14 May 2013 15:26 (twelve years ago)

You know what I think of Hagueified synth chimes but "Silly Thing"? Yeesh.

― A deeper shade of lol (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 14 May 2013 15:27 (twelve years ago)

this album, for me, is all about "Kiss Them For Me", "Little Sister", "Cry" and "The Ghost In You"

― far too much asshole flesh (DJP), Tuesday, 14 May 2013 15:28 (twelve years ago)

Yeah, once I heard those it was time for me to wait for the inevitable Creatures reunion. Hate this album.

― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Tuesday, 14 May 2013 16:20 (twelve years ago)

haha um I don't think a Creatures reunion is particularly inevitable

― far too much asshole flesh (DJP), Tuesday, 14 May 2013 16:23 (twelve years ago)

twelve years pass...

Wow this one's kinda shit!

― completely suited to the horny decadence (Capitaine Jay Vee), Wednesday, 18 June 2025 20:01 (one week ago)

Uneven, that's for sure.

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 18 June 2025 20:03 (one week ago)

The worst period Hague production, though the songs are the problem.

― hungover beet poo (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 18 June 2025 20:15 (one week ago)

I always regret that this was the first time I saw them live, but in the Lollapalooza context at least, and it was a smart setlist:

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/siouxsie-and-the-banshees/1991/irvine-meadows-amphitheatre-irvine-ca-4bd44b82.html

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 18 June 2025 20:38 (one week ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.

C/D: Siouxsie & The Banshees - Superstition