Best Of Siouxsie & The Banshees, The - Siouxsie & The Banshees > Reviews > Sex, Drugs, Head Problems And Siouxie.

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Definitely a cut above the rest
Lyrics	Thought-provoking
Quality and consistency of tracks	One hit and lots of B-sides
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Unmemorable
Value for Money

Advantages:	A rare form of music from the era it was made .  .  . Siouxie was rather, erm, mental for that time .  .  .  * ahem *  .
Disadvantages:	The best of?  This?  You must be kidding !

Recommend to potential buyers:

no

Full review

Being a huge music fan and being a obsessive indulgent of PJ Harvey, a lot of people are/were susprised that I didn't check out the first lady of darkness/punk, namley Siouxie, whom Ms Harvey gets compared to quite oftenish, because of her bizarre behaviour and lyrics, exactly just like Siouxie back in her days when she was the Queen Freek of the 70's/80's, so I can really see the resemblance.

So, anyway, a few months back I met this guy, Nick, and we ended up being really good friends and he is just the biggest Siouxie fan ever and it's true when people say you are heavily influenced by the people around you, including music wise.

So, I brought The Best Of and here is my opinion on it...well duh, obviously...this is a writing site, right? Just checking. I don't want to get banned or anything. No, really! What makes you think that, eh?

^"^ Dear Prudence ^"^

Ex-Beatles song, which proves to stand as a great cover version. Very relaxed for Siouxie. Still with that sliding Siouxie hall-mark. The atmoshere is psychidalic, like taking the Beatles from their pop-era to their psychidalic era. And this is exactly what you get. A great song, indeed and probably her most famous song for those who know her.

^"^ Hong Kong Garden ^"^

Straight away sounds quite Japanese. High energy type song, with a bouncy mood to it. It's about the various aspects to Chinese and their life. Her voice seems slightly aggressive, as with the music, in a good catchy way, almost as if she was influenced by China Town London more than China itself! It does resumble in her own way, the roughness of China Town London of the time she wrote this song.

^"^ Cities In Dust ^"^

Very oriental sounding, you can see from this where The Cure emerged out of her music. Her voice is heaven, very 'real' to her usual style...and surprisingly catchy. A good track indeed.

^"^ Peek=A=Boo ^"^

What the hell is this all about? It's like this was a last ditch attempt to keep that punky sounding freshness in what was in fact a very late track. Her voice sounds great however, making all those
strange nosies she does...it's VERY Siouxie. But probably out of it's time by now. Netherless, this track does grow on you.

^"^ Happy House ^"^

My favourite song...seriously, as soon as you hear the opening chords to this song, you'll just have it hooked in your head all week. It's so addictivly hyper sounding. Happy House also has this certain sick quality type twist to it, identifiable with being tranquillised in a hospital of the 70's, it's very depressing sounding, as if resigned to the confines and the misery of a commital and there's a strong note of sarcasiscm in her voice and lyrics.
It's a great track, it's got so much to offer...black humour, but serious enough to listen to the main point.

^"^ Kiss Them For Me ^"^

Sounds very 80's electric and doesn't really resmeble the rest of her stuff which she is marked for. Sort of like an electric, her voice is plan and simple. Nothing special here, but listenable.

^"^ Face To Face ^"^

It's atmospheric. Her voice actually does strike a chord, it's strong and much powerful under the music.
It's a bit Siouxie meets Abba...I really like this track, it's laidback, typical Siouxie dreamy but at the same time it does sound a little creepy...her voice is WOW...I like dat!

^"^ Dizzy ^"^

This song does actually make you feel dizzy, even though it's very tame. This sounds like Siouxie on Valuim - not that I've taken it myself...honest! Her voice is ghostly with the music which is pheraputic. Not the strongest but it's the nearest you'd get to a love song, with some of the lyrics which are quite intensely and unusually romantic.

^"^ Israel ^"^

A strong and excellent track. Siouxie at her best coming as it does from her earlier albums. The music is addictive, so is her voice...it's molded punk into new wave, and has all the hallmarks of Siouxie at her peak. An excellent track, feels like it says something really politcal but I could never work out what...but who cares? This is song is brilliant!

^"^ Christine ^"^

Love the intro, another brilliant track. The song is about a split personailty, 'Christine The Strawberry Girl' could easily be an reflection of Siouxie herself at the time. Very punk, very mysterious and hides quite a dark nature. Her voice and lyrics are pretty extreme, which proves what an talented artist she was.

^"^ Spellbound ^"^

Another of my favourite...I love the engery of this track and the proper explosive engery which holds this track together - which hooked everyone to Siouxie in the first place. It sounds like a James Bond theme, with the tempo going up and down all
the time, with Siouxie's brilliant voice sliding everywhere in between. There's one part of this track which says: "don't forget when your kids to say their preys, take them by the legs and throw them down the stairs" = very late 70's and again, sounding like someone who has obvious head problems and an identiy crisis. *laughs*.

^"^ Stargazer ^"^

Very guitar sounding, for once. Sounds a little different to her usual stuff, kinda too light for Siouxie. Sounds too poppy to suit her and lacks her usual depths.

^"^ Arabian Knights ^"^

Excellent song, which again, proves to be ever so addictive, it's just one of those tunes you can't get rid from your head. Another early song, with such an amazing and brilliant backing which is absolutely dripping with plenty of atmosphere, slightly sadistic, full of fun and energy. Siouxie's voice is pure, seductive, the guitaring is excellent. The rhythm is nothing but excellent, one of it's own without a doubt. Another very very very original style which is sooooo Siouxie...no doubt about dat.

^"^ The Killing Jar ^"^

Sounds too rock n roll for her. Like something you'd stuff in to fluff out an album without any intentions to make one hits...just a filler. Bad track indeed. A hole in her socking.

^"^ The Wheels On Fire ^"^

Sounds kinda Irish, the longest track on the album, one which gives us a headache. Skip. Immediately!

FINALLY THOUGHTS

On the whole album, I have to say that it should be called 'Half Siouxie Greatest Hits' - there's so much commercial singles of high significance for Siouxie fans missing from this album. Like, where are her earlier hits such as Staircase Mystery? And other singles of that calibuar.

It seems poorly choosen if it's her greatest hits then it's a cop-out. Half of the hits on this album are not simply her greatest hits. And it's also a bit of a rip off that the second CD only has remixes of these titles beacause it would be so easy just to have ALL of her greatest hits or at least some of her better tracks from her early days and really give the customers value for their money.

The good thing about this CD is that you do have 4 or 5 of her top sounds which gives customers a tester to what her potential is, but it would be so much better to have used the CD space to give the customer a full introduction into how excellent
Siouxie is as a performer and an writer. Perhaps they only gave us a tester on purpose so we'd buy all her albums...f**kers.

If it was me trying to get someone hooked on Siouxie I would have disagreed on this album and the tracks that are displayed and I certainly would have let a full tracks off her earlier albums through to give the real essence of Siouxie, not a good advert for her. I believe this CD sells of short.

Stars = 2 (if The Staircase was on here, I would have gave it all the stars in this world, because that song is just the best song at the minute...thanks a bunch for not putting that track on! F**kers.)