The
laughing dog. The scavenger. The survivor, picking over the
bones of the past to nourish the present. At times ignoble,
essentially alive. This is the Banshees.
Their prey may have varied over the
years, but it's still the same old carrion carry-on. At their transcendental
best, the Banshees are a million times more than the sum of their
parts. That arrogantly independent attitude, those embarrassing
excursions into the occult, the creeping spell and the sudden rush of
blood is so unique that it takes on a life of its own.
There are many such moments on
'Hyaena', moments where the Banshees are caught up in the revelry of their
own creations. Parts of it are so wistfully carefree that it's
impossible not to credit Robert Smith as the talisman - his irreverence
seems to course through everything.
'Take Me Back' is the Banshees
rollicking like some primitive jazz combo drunk on the Good Lord's
wine. On 'Belladonna', Smith's liquid guitar relaxes Sioux to the extent
that she drops a few masks to reveal her vulnerability. When the
siren sings "daylight devours your unguarded hours",
she's illuminating her own predicament so acutely it surely can't be
coincidence.
'Dazzle', too, is naively
daring: Siouxsie's voice, framed alone against the firmament of
strings. It could be Lloyd Webber's Cats or something by Vaughn
Williams. You can get impressed, wrapped up and lost in this.
That's the beauty but then there's the complacency. 'Running Town'
tries to sound eerie but instead of evoking the awful truth behind the
clown's cheery mask, it just sounds giddy and silly. And 'Hunger For
This' and 'Pointing Bone' are just the Banshees being the Banshees.
I doubt 'Hyaena' could be any other
way. It urges itself to the turning point where we stop assuming
what the Banshees should be and start accepting that they can do anything
they like.
'Hyaena' is an immaculate
conception. Again
Steve Sutherland. 09/06/84
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