Siouxsie and the Banshees’ last three studio albums, Peepshow, Superstition and The Rapture are being reissued in remastered packages with bonus tracks.
Although the group were major stars in the U.K. (14 top forty hits between 1978 and 1995), it wasn’t until the latter part of their career that they started to break through in the U.S. Superstition became their biggest album in 1991 followed closely by their previous release, 1988’s Peepshow. The new-found success was the result of a number of major hits on Modern Rock radio including Peek-a-Boo (1988 / #1 Modern Rock), The Killing Jar (1988 / #2 Modern Rock) and Kiss Them For Me (1991 / #1 Modern Rock).
The new releases:
PEEPSHOW (1988)
Peepshow marked both The Banshees’ first album as a quintet and the moment where they created their most certifiably diverse long-player to date – together it amounted to nothing less than the shock of invincibility. The album was both a critical and a commercial success in the U.S. and U.K. and when the first single, the totally unpigeonholable Peek-A-Boo, appeared in July 1988 it was met with near universal acclaim.
Track Listing:
Peek-A-Boo
The Killing Jar
Scarecrow
Carousel
Burn-Up
Ornaments Of Gold
Turn To Stone
Rawhead & Bloodybones
The Last Beat Of My Heart
Rhapsody
Bonus Tracks
El Dia De Los Muertos (Espiritu Mix – reissued here for the first time in over 25 years)
The Killing Jar (Lepidopteristic Mix – reissued here for the first time in over 25 years)
The Last Beat Of My Heart (Live @ Lollapalooza, 1991)
SUPERSTITION (1991)
For their tenth album, they surprised everyone by recruiting Stephen Hague as producer. Hague, best known for his work with O.M.D. and Pet Shop Boys, was the unlikeliest of choices to collaborate with a group known for imbuing their rhythms and melodies with edgy disorder. The result was an enthralling collection of songs that saw The Banshees play with new textures and reinvent themselves all over again. This towering album sounded and still sounds like their greatest leap forward.
Superstition once again underlined that Siouxsie & The Banshees were spinning in a world of their own making, a seismic jolt in the void, a group to treasure. Kiss Them For Me is classic Banshees, unearthing its ripe sensuality in the darkest of terrains. When released as a single in May 1991, opinion was sharply divided between pure devotion and utter confusion. When unveiled at that year’s Lollapalooza travelling festival, Kiss Them For Me caught the moment perfectly and went on to become their biggest U.S. hit single to date. The following year, Tim Burton personally requested a Banshees song for his film Batman Returns. The resulting classic Face To Face is included here as a bonus track.
Track Listing:
Kiss Them For Me
Fear (Of The Unknown)
Cry
Drifter
Little Sister
Shadowtime
Silly Thing
Got To Get Up
Silver Waterfalls
Softly
The Ghost In You
Bonus Tracks
Face To Face (7″ version)
Kiss Them For Me (Snapper Mix)
Kiss Them For Me (Kathak #1 Mix – never before released)
THE RAPTURE (1995)
Of all The Banshees’ albums, their final, The Rapture, is their most wildly schizophrenic and arguably their most ambitious. Velvet Underground alumnus and art rock pioneer John Cale produced half of the album, while the band took control of the rest. The bonus tracks feature a previously unreleased track called FGM, plus the hitherto unavailable, full length version of New Skin, recorded for the Showgirls soundtrack.
Throughout the album, The Banshees were a group at their most creatively fecund, still delighting in their placelessness, venturing into the only area where they ever felt safe: the realm of unreason. Even as they were unknowingly winding down the curtain, they were tantalizingly hinting at entirely new pastures, uncharted amusement parks of the mind.
The Rapture proved to be their swan song yet remains a dramatic transformation, ensuring that they finished on a dizzying high.
From The Scream to The Rapture in 20 expansive, adventurous years. Not bad going for a group who only formed for a night.
Track Listing:
O Baby
Tearing Apart
Stargazer
Fall From Grace
Not Forgotten
Sick Child
The Lonely One
Falling Down
Forever
The Rapture
The Double Life
Love Out Me
Bonus Tracks
O Baby (Manhattan Mix)
FGM (unreleased demo)
New Skin (unreleased complete version commissioned by Paul Verhoeven for his cult campfest Showgirls)
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