Album Thoughts
I've never listened to Siouxsie Sioux before, so we'll se what we're in for.
Song Notes
Hong Kong Garden
- I… feel like the East Asian influence here is a little on the nose.
- I dig the sound overall, but I’m having trouble getting past the “generic Chinese” sound.
Mirage
- The tone shift for the bridge between the chorus and the verse feels kinda beach-y, and is probably my favorite part of the song.
The Staircase (Mystery)
- The darkness of this one is very fun.
- Oh, the “ghostly” backup vocals is such a delight!
Playground Twist
- Gruesome as all hell.
- I can see why this might be a controversial one.
- It’s so theatrical!
Love in a Void
- This hits some classic chord progressions that I wish would crop up in more places.
- The energy is fantastic.
Happy House
- The dissonance between the vocals and the instrumentation, as well as the offbeat drums sell the madness of the song nicely.
- I wish we got more of the whistling that came in right at the end.
Christine
- Ooh, I like the switch between the darker and lighter chords in the chorus.
Israel
- Israel can fuck all the way off.
- It’s hard to get any proper political messaging out of this, but it’s also hard to be unbiased about this song. Musically, it’s fine, it fits in.
Spellbound
- This song’s in contention for my favorite of the album, though I don’t know what my favorite might be.
Arabian Knights
- Damn, this one is scathing to Middle-Eastern misogyny. Nice.
General Thoughts
- Siouxsie’s singing is a fun wail that carries a lot of atmosphere for the music.
- My own musical sensibilities feel rather maximalist, so I feel like more bare-bones composition and mixing probably don’t get the credit they deserve from me.
- The use of dissonance and eerie tones provide some strong atmosphere that really help amp up what I feel might be missing.
- Not a bad set of songs.