Track Listing

1. Happy House
2. Tenant
3. Trophy
4. Hybrid
5. Clockface
6. Lunar Camel
7. Christine
8. Desert Kisses
9. Red Light
10. Paradise Place
11. Skin

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #59198 in Music
• Released on: 1992-08-25
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

Album Description
Digitally remastered reissue of this 1980 album by the Queen of Goth Rock and her busy little Banshees featuring nine bonus tracks including 'Sitting Room', 'Israel' (Single Version), four Warner Chappell demos and three Polydor demos. 20 tracks. Polydor.

Customer Reviews

They broke the mold
Forget categories like Goth or Dark Wave, this record is a classic no matter what pigeonhole you try to put it in. On this disc the band pulled out all the stops, and the quirkiness of their performances (notice for example the dizzying tempo changes on "Happy House"; it ends at least 1/3 faster than it begins), only serve to make the thing more endearing. And Budgie's drum sound--good heavens.....it's as far from the over-produced "big drum" crap that Phil Collins made famous as you can get. These drums have character and Budgie's snare never sounds the same two hits in a row. But the true charm of this disc is the songs. They are so creatively conceived and performed it is mind-boggling. Some people call "Juju" the quintessential Siouxsie record--and I love it too, my friends, but Kaleidoscope broke the mold. I had the LP, wore it out, and now I'm carrying the CD in my car and refuse to part with it. Buy this disc; you will love it.

More Meters, less Bela Lugosi.
Siouxie and the Banshees always had a deep crush on classic American funk (find, if you can, the cover of "Supernatural Thing" on the flipside of the "Arabian Nights" 12" single), though, in keeping with a key plank in punk's aesthetic manifesto, they were smart enough to never play it in blackface. In short, this is an album of dope beats -- the underlying foundation for some clean barre-chord riffing, sweet and tarnished pop songcraft, and a good dose of European weltschmertz -- though it's the cold rock beats that make it better than a Nico record every time out.

Banshees Best
In my opinion the Banshees best over all album. A perfect blend of hypnotic, rhythmic oddities and twisted, not quite "pop" songs. Kaleidoscope shows off the Banshees every strength, from Siouxsie's new-found control over her once admittedly quite out of control voice, to Severin and Budgie's continuing almost telepathetic relation as a rhythm section. A bevy of session guitarists ( from ex-Pistol Steve Jones to eventual full time, if short lived member, John McGeoch ) hold the songs together quite well, you'd never notice the ever-shifting lineup. Tight, with great production. Very highly recommended.