The apotheosis of everything they’d done up to that point, Siouxsie and The Banshees’ ninth album ‘Peepshow’ released in 1988, was arguably the best of their work, next to ‘JuJu’.
Influenced by the flickering expressionist shadows of early German cinema, the Weimar Republic and torch songs, the album saw Siouxsie take off her signature Cleopatra eyeliner for the first time,, and wear her hair in a Louise Brooks bob. We’re talking jazz baby, but with an eighties twist.
Below: The Cabinet of Dr Caligari
Weimar Republic jazz players.
The music had a similar bearing: the throbbing strings which almost drowned previous songs like ‘Dazzle’ were more subtly deployed here, as on the gorgeous, teasing high drama of ‘The Killing Jar’
Jon Klein from Specimen had joined, as well as multi-instrumentalist Martin McCarrick, turning the band into a quintet. Their playing was rich and impish, bringing some jagged shards of Bernard Hermann textures to proceedings: Siouxsie had always been influenced by the film ‘Psycho’, she said.’Scarecrow’ and ‘Burnt -Out’ brought that visceral, typically Banshees chill to the air.
Everyone loves ‘Peek A Boo’. Few hit singles have been this experimental: in the first wave of acid house, this brought a jaunty Cajun accordion, scratchy backwards tapes and Siouxsie singing through different mics to distort her voice. They were forced to credit Johnny Mercer for the chorus, as it openly homaged Louis Armstrong singing ‘Jeepers Creepers’.
The video was gorgeous too, the band in carnival masks creeping around Siouxsie doing a slow Charleston, and occasionally lunging at the camera. And the lyrics are some of her finest, calling out the exploitation of girls and women in the sex industry: “Flaccid ego in your hand/Chokes on dry tears/can’t you understand?” It’s scathing all right.
What was even more strange in the album though was…wait for it…a ballad!’The Last Beat Of My Heart’ was quite shocking in its softness. Was The Ice Queen of Goth finally melting? Not quite: it was still imperious, but absolutely sincere, vulnerable and beautiful, and it had a strange air of finality to it. It wasn’t their last, but it certainly felt like a swansong.
They still maintained that glamorous, elusive theatricality in live sets, and they were never better than here. What an exciting era for The Banshees, always ahead of the pack, in terms of influence and execution.
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