Again, Siouxsie’s imagery impresses itself in the listener’s mind, with the image of “ the preying sky” crystallizing the song’s ominousness. Throughout the album, there is an apocalyptic vein that is perhaps best captured in “Cities in Dust,” an unexpectedly catchy song that shows off the band’s new synth, and “Cannons,” a Cure-inspired track that reads like a prose poem, a lucid dream or rather lucid nightmare of landscapes wracked by disaster and war. Likewise with “ This unrest crucifies my chest” from the next song, “This Unrest,” an intense, pace-shifting song propelled by Budgie’s characteristically versatile and expressive drumming.
Siouxsie and the banshees tinderbox full#
“The Sweetest Chill” takes the listener into Kate Bush territory, a deathly romantic song that finds the singer longing for the “ icy breath” of some mysterious beloved, “ a drowning so sublime.” Siouxsie’s gift for imagery is on full display here-it is hard to get “ tears thaw my sleep” out of your head once you’ve heard it. Elsewhere, the contribution is a largely textural, Edge-like one, and in other songs he is reminiscent of Peter Buck, unassumingly carving out melodies that both support and enhance Siouxsie’s singing. Songs like this show off Carruthers’ guitar playing, which takes a streamlined approach without being minimal, stepping up for the riff at the right moment before slipping back into the rhythm section and working, like them, in service of the song. “ With a jaundiced wink” and “ his cunning slink,” he almost seems like Siouxsie’s version of Pennywise, the clown from Stephen King’s It. It features typically wicked lyrics, putting a nightmarish, distinctly British post-punk twist on the character, previously immortalized by Mississippi John Hurt, among others. The album starts off promisingly with “Candyman,” one of the “hits,” as it were, a catchy and arppegiated pop-goth track that sounds like Durutti Column on uppers. Though his overall tenure was brief-he would leave the next year, after recording an album of covers with the group-he nonetheless left his mark, and the impact is heard throughout Tinderbox. They were recruiting guitarist John Valentine Carruthers, who had previously appeared on an EP. Its release year, 1986, marked yet another period of transition for the band. It has held up over time better than most albums and is rightly admired by a host of contemporary musicians. Tinderbox is another jewel of musical invention for Siouxsie and the Banshees.
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