Siouxsie and the banshees -The Scream...A Review

I really wish i could say that i was there listening to these tracks when they were coming out but that would be a lie, i discovered the power of the banshees much later than this album. This album followed about 2 years of gigs and building up a live repuation and of course recording peel sessions for the banshees to finally get a recording contract with polydor. Where as most clips of the banshees from the 77 era are quite chaotic and poor quality. Part of the problem lay in that they wanted a recording contract to give them fully artistic control and that probably meant that their records came out quite late after the initial punk movement. The album was released on the 13th November 1978 after Hong Kong garden had been a hit.

The album is such a classic post punk album, I think you could say carcass is quite punky but their is definately a dark theme to the album tracks like Jigsaw feeling. I read an article about Siouxsie critising the bromley area where she grew up. So tracks like surburban relapse had added meaning.

The guitar work of Mckay is simple yet effective. The gih points for me on this album are the tracks 'Jigsaw feeling' and 'Switch'. Morris's drum patterns are slighly delayed. Which gives the album a real stark sound.

Track 1-Pure


this is a live version of Pure the intro track

Track 2-jigsaw feeling


Powerful version of the old grey whistle test

Track 3-Overground


John peel session version.

Track 4-carcass


quite Punky track, not as dark as other tracks

Track 5-helter Skelter


track 6-Mirage



Beatles cover . Session version

Track 7 -Metal postcard


another track from their 1978 appearance on Old grey whistle test

Track 8-Nicotine stain


album version
Track 9 -Surburban relapse


surburban living -nightmare!

track 10 -Switch


probably one of my favrioute tracks of theirs . all versions are good . I was going to include the nocturne version but that wouldnt be true to the album review.

so there is the track by track review of the scream