Search - Siouxsie & Banshees :: Hyeana

Between good & excellent

Pieter | Johannesburg | 04/24/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This reissue has been enhanced by three extra tracks. Although not generally considered to be amongst this seminal punk band's top 5 albums, Hyaena contains at least four magical moments. As such, it is not a bad album at all and in fact I like it more now than when it was released in the middle 1980s.



The first is the swirling Dazzle, a soaring melodic rock ballad that all by itself makes the album worthwhile. Swimming Horses is another classic of post punk-psychedelic rock, quite an atmospheric number. Then there's their cover of The Beatles' Dear Prudence, where the arrangement and Siouxsie's voice turn a love song into an eerie 'noire' affair.



We Hunger has a bubbling, jerky rhythmic backdrop whilst Take Me Back is a sparse, mid-tempo ballad. Belladonna is another of my favorites and the 4th masterpiece of the album with a beautiful melody. Bring Me The Head Of The Preacher Man is a long brooding piece of dense instrumentation and claustrophobic airs whilst Running Town has some interesting tempo changes and striking guitar playing.



Hyaena has stood the test of time very well but the three added tracks don't really add much to the magic. The aforementioned great songs, especially Dazzle, Belladonna and Swimming Horses, rank amongst this legendary group's best songs. My other recommended albums by Siouxsie & The Banshees are Peepshow, Join Hands, The Rapture and Superstition.

"

THE 1ST BANSHEES ALBUM I HEARD IN 1984, AND I HAVEN'T BEEN T

A. Gonsalves | New York City | 06/21/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This was the one that I heard in the Summer of 1984, long before I was even a pre-teen (thanks to an older sibling), that introduced me to a band, a music, a poetry, and a voice that still seems unusual, exotic, and ethereal. "The Siouxsie Beautiful Movement" had already taken place w/ 1980's forever classic, KALEIDOSCOPE and got on in earnest w/ A KISS IN THE DREAMHOUSE, but it was w/ HYAENA that Siouxsie and the Banshees fully realized their Punk/Post-Punk/Classic-Contemporary mix w/ orchestral strings, Folky, Eastern sounds, ferocious guitars (Courtesy of long-time, but never truly committed, guitarist Robert Smith of The Cure), the constant, angry/melancholy bass of Severin, and the drum god that is Peter "Budgie" Clarke...and, best for last, a 27 year old Susan Janet "Siouxsie Sioux" Ballion singing like a delicate siren, a spirit warning of danger, a black witch revelling in a dark forest, and an angry living ghost, raving of past sins and future devastations.



The highlights of the album are the entire 10 songs... however, "Dazzle" was the song that got critics to finally accept that Siouxsie had a beautiful, formidable vocal range that could fit different kinds of music and material. "Take Me Back" (true story: I was asleep when I 1st heard it, so I had this simple, yet beautiful dream of colors and images that I still can't clearly remember, but still seems beautiful to this day...close your eyes when you hear that song and you'll have an idea of what it was like) was the 1st song that I ever heard from the band, and it still remains one of my favorites -- it, like the whole rest of the album, showcases how choir-like and operatic Siouxsie's voice sounded when textured in overdubs and overlapping octaves she created on her own. "Dear Prudence" may be her best recorded vocal in her 32 years of recording, and, to me, is better than the Beatles' original...even rock critics and MCcartney praised this cover. When I was 10 years old, I said, "'Swimming Horses' is one of the saddest, most beautiful songs I've ever heard." "Dreams", by Fleetwood Mac, is its equally-sad, beautiful sister. Play those two songs back-to-back, and they make good companion-pieces. The album lyrics are like reading a book of short stories on varying subjects, but with a dark bent. The production is expansive, thrashing, and otherworldly.



The remastering by Kevin Metcalfe is excellent. The liner notes by Paul Morley, as always, are very informative and good reading in itself. The "Extras" are bare minimum: But it is nice to hear Siouxsie and Mr. Smith laughing as they both work out Siouxsie's little piano melody that later becomes the opening for "Dazzle". If you're new to the Banshees and their dark Ice Queen leader, this is a great place to start, because you get to hear the full expression of what their original artistic desires were.



P.S. The cover art of this album is an iconic image from my childhood. I'd never seen art like that on an album before. One of their best."

Hyaena

charles rinehart | Los Angeles,CA. | 06/24/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"
Hyaena

I originally bought the CD because "Bring Me the Head of the Preacher Man" just grabbed me.

If you're a fan of the Banshees, you want this. I would pair it with "Kiss In the Dreamhouse"(A fantastic album also).

In my opinion, one of the top 3 they did."