Siouxsie - Mantaray
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Free Music Notes for Mantaray
Free Music Review: Welcome back SIOUXSIE!
Hit: 5 Stars
Well, after all this yime, she is BACK! This album offers catchy tunes and some powerful ballads with really great positive messages. The range of her voice has matured, and her voice is rich with that unique Siouxsie sound. Siouxsie fans will be pleased. I would even give this to my parents!Free Music Review: Crikey, looks like she's got more fans there than in old London Town!
Hit: 5 Stars
I guess that, in this day and age, if Amy Winehouse can get away with putting out an album barely over 40 minutes, then punk/goth/rock high priestess Siouxsie (apply whichever crusty old epithet you prefer) thinks she can do the same, and with one fewer track. Well, she's right!
Having been a little inattentive to her last couple of releases, this album has surely got to skyrocket Siouxsie into whatever music Halls of Fame she's not yet been inducted to. Except that might suggest a coda to a 30-year career which clearly isn't over yet.
Produced with Steve Evans and Charlie Jones, this, like Amy's bestseller from last year and Roisin Murphy's recent opus, is very much a unified album with an overall vision - the type that those Mercury Music Prize judges are so keen on, and Mantaray deserves to be appreciated with such concentration - only at a very HIGH VOLUME!
I can understand why some die-hard fans might be a little disappointed by its maturity and, for Siouxsie (if no one else), "poppiness". But we've already got Kaleidoscope, we've already got Juju, A Kiss In The Dreamhouse and Anima Animus, so why not embrace something new?
When I first heard them in isolation, I wasn't crazy about either the first single, Into A Swan, nor the (better) follow-up, Here Comes That Day; I thought they skated uncomfortably close to self-pastiche. But, cranked up loud, they really hit the spot. Lyrically, one or two of the tracks might seem a little flaccid in places (I think another reviewer has already noted the House of cards/feet of clay mixed metaphor on the current single), but they are delivered with such oomph, and are such well-crafted songs that it doesn't seem to matter after all. "Don't be bitter/Don't be gloomy/All your torment/Flowers blooming" could almost be from Kim Appleby's unlistenably trite "Don't Worry", except that it's from the quietly stunning If It Doesn't Kill You, which reminded me of nothing so much as Siouxsie's version - many years ago - of Strange Fruit, but with a much more epic sweep. So much so that any right-thinking person must think that, if there's a battle on to do the next Bond theme, Siouxsie must now be neck-and-neck with the aforementioned Ms. Winehouse (after Love Is A Losing Game... but I wonder who would generate more column inches?).
Seriously, though, I always thought there was something quite beautiful about Siouxsie's voice - in fact, getting this album made be go out and buy the remastered version of Juju, the mangled vowel sounds of which must be etched deep in my cerebral cortex - and they're all present and correct on Mantaray's compelling closing track, Heaven And Alchemy. Maybe we're "in love with the idea of her", but I when I was soaking up the energy of her stage performances 25 years ago, I never imagined she'd become such a grande dame of music, and still radiating the same energy as she grasped each new baton - the video for Here Comes The Day demonstrates that, and a ticket to one of her live shows is so much more than a vote for nostalgia.
Respect!
Free Music Review: Siouxsie Creates a work of Uplifting Thoughtful Art!
Hit: 4 Stars
I am so pleased by Siouxsie's new work, Mantaray! The extremely contagious "Into A
Swan" is excellent! I love her use of odd harmony and melody in many of the selections. It's unique sound adds to her signature voice. The lyrics are also impressive and insightful. It seems Siouxsie truly has come into her own and created a work of art. I am from the "old school" having listened to this artist since the early 80's. I thought she was lost forever after the 90's. I was wrong. Something truly has happened to Siouxsie and she has "burst out" into what I hope is only the beginning of more great music! Well done!
Free Music Review: Siouxsie lives!
Hit: 5 Stars
I love Siouxsie Sioux; I love Siouxsie and the Banshees. While I've long loved the beautifully macabre world Siouxsie inhabited in albums such as Juju and Kaleidoscope, I was disappointed by the Banshees' last albums and Siouxsie's other (less) recent efforts, such as her Dreamshow DVD. While the packaging and art was wonderful for that DVD, Siouxsie seemed far from her best both vocally and physically. I thought Siouxsie Sioux was lost to the times - an icon of punk and the Queen of Goth retired into history.
Then I heard about Mantaray. I saw the album art and loved it, but remained cautious because I felt the same initial reaction for Dreamshow. When the album came out I bought it after the flurry of positive buzz it had generated, and I quickly fell in love again. Siouxsie is back! While her voice can't do what it did twenty years ago and there's not nearly enough of her signature howl on this album, Siouxsie really does sound great here. Her lyrics still reflect the wonderfully intelligent, cynical realist both in love with and irritated with the world. The production itself is fantastic - all of the songs are crisp with a modern sound that simultaneously recalls previous styles: sometimes poppy, sometimes jazzy, always baroque, and often quite suggestive of Siouxsie's still-not-lost fascination with the grotesque. And while the album itself isn't goth, it's definitely a wonderful adventure for anyone feeling the absence of Siouxsie Sioux over the past couple of years, and makes for an excellent view into the growth of an exquisite artist.
I couldn't be happier. Sioux lives!
Free Music Review: Never liked the Banshees but I love Mantaray!!!!!!
Hit: 4 Stars
I grew up in the late 70's and early 80's and listend to all kinds of music. I was and still am a HUGE Cure fan but could never get into Siouxsie and the Banshees. I tried with almost ever Banshees album released but they never clicked with me. After reading some of the well written reviews on here I decided to give Siouxsie another try. All I can say is that I'm glad I did! This is an excellent release and proabaly one of my favorite releases this year!