The Seven Year Itch - Dark Publications

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Customer Reviews: Read 7 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

So you don't think she has a pretty voice . . . August 27, 2003
7 out of 9 found this review helpful

Well maybe you've missed what's most wonderful about her.

Remember first that the Banshees happened in the years of do-it-yourself music-making of the late 1970s. The point then wasn't to craft a polished presentation, but to figure out a few chords on the guitar and say what was on your mind. When it worked best, it was because a band had a point of view that resonated with the rest of us.

Over time, the Banshees' experiments with the technicalities of presenting their point of view began to describe a truly new style. The rich layers of sound they created in the studio grew naturally out of the world view they presented in their music and lyrics. But different media allow - or require - different means to communicate the thought and emotion at the heart of a work. If expression in the recording studio lends itself to a careful and baroque assemblage of those layers of sound, expression on the stage can offer an immediacy and connection with an audience that more than compensates for any simplification of its form.

Sioux doesn't sing pretty. She often can't hit a note with one strike. So she slides around it, sometimes missing it completely. But each pass of her voice conveys more art than the bland precision many performers could muster in an entire performance. When technical accuracy fails her, she finds other ways to use her voice and to get where she needs to be. She's a stylist. She has more in common with Marlene Dietrich than with someone like Doris Day who, for all her volume and pitch, is about as affecting as a marching band. Now, think for a moment: to whom would you rather listen?

This album is a look back at the band's twenty-year career and gives us some perspective on how they got to this place. Most of the big hits are conspicuously absent. Instead we hear less familiar B-sides and a good deal of early work.

It's transporting to hear the early tunes refracted through the prism of Sioux's mature voice. The sharp edges of those post-Punk endeavors sound more craggy now; they evoke the worlds of emotion and experience that have passed through her in the years between. Those emotions wait, coiled in each little crack, and unfurl with a half-worn spring action as she slips and drags her voice over the jagged edges.

This is a great collection and would be worth the purchase price for the wonderful "Lullaby" alone. This is one of the most affecting songs the Banshees ever wrote: a heartfelt expression of tenderness for the innocent caught in a world rife with pain and desolation.

And, just by the way, the band sounds wonderful, too.

If you're a fan or you just want to know what all the fuss is about, buy this album. It's an important piece of performance. If it's a pretty voice you're after, go buy a Sarah McLachlan disc instead.

1 out of 5 stars

Seven Year Itch: Unfaithful to a once-great band June 15, 2004
6 out of 7 found this review helpful

I used to have Siouxsie's name inscribed on my pencil-case. But after seeing her live in 83 in the Wellington Town Hall, with Robert Smith on guitar, I moved the inscription to my heart. (Mainly for the music, but there was also the way she nearly dented some particularly obnoxious audience members, shaven-headed boot-wearers who admired Hitler, with a deft swing of the microphone stand, which in those primitive days had a base made of concrete. All without missing a note: ahhh, Siouxsie...)

I'm a fan. I still list "Spellbound" somewhere in my top 20 songs, and I still have moods where only the thunder of the Banshees and Siouxsie in full cry will really do. I've even tried to persuade people that the Cure were the second best band that Robert Smith played guitar in. (I usually lose that argument, but win the fall-back position that the Banshees' _Nocturne_ is the best album he ever played on.)

So I bought the "Seven Year Itch" concert DVD the moment I saw it, expecting a nice dark romantic energy transfusion. And I got a serious disappointment instead.

The first five or so songs are performed in a sort of monotone muttering, not only by Siouxsie herself, who seems to have spent the last 10 years smoking and coughing, but also by the Banshees. But those first songs were never my favourites anyway, so my expectations lifted again when Siouxsie announced "Happy House". "Happy House" always had a nice line in obsessive incantatory power. But as performed by the new Siouxsie, it doesn't even have a tune any more, let alone any power. After that, "Christine" came and went without even conjuring up a ghost, a faded wisp, of the glorious song that it ought to be. More muttering from Siouxsie, more off-hand rumbling from the Banshees. And then I took the DVD off, since this was too damn depressing for words.

A few days later I tried "Spellbound", on the theory that the song is damn near indestructible, and surely it would galvanise even this batch of Banshees into some sort of life.
Tester's report: "Spellbound" not indestructible. Banshees still shambolical. Siouxsie still lost her voice.

So. As an irrationally passionate Siouxsie and the Banshees fan, I'm here to warn you that this hideous travesty is not only awful in its own right, but it can have a sort of reverse halo effect, seriously tarnishing the memory of some great music. The cure, after hearing as much of this as you can stand, is to play _Nocturne_, the Banshees' 1983 live album, which is all the proof you need that the Banshees were a brilliant live band with an awe-inspiring catalogue of songs.

Buy _Nocturne_ instead, if you don't already have it; it's virtually a best-of, up to 1983, with versions that often improve on the studio originals. But whatever you do, don't succumb to _the Seven Year Itch_.

4 out of 5 stars Siouxsie&The Banshees-'Seven Year Itch Live'(Sanctuary) June 9, 2004
4 out of 4 found this review helpful

First of all,I'd like to say that I'm utterly amazed that the band had actually reunited.'Seven Year...' was recorded live in London on July 9&10,2002 in front of a grateful audience.Most of the classic line-up is here.Siouxsie,Steven Severin on bass,Budgie on drums and new member Knox Chandler on guitar.Tunes that one MIGHT expect to be on 'Seven Year...' like "Spellbound","Kiss Them For Me","Arabian Knights" and "Dear Prudence" are absent.Siouxsie and crew apparently chose to play a set of some obscure tunes that some might not remember right off hand.Don't get me wrong.It's a great CD to own.The tunes that sort of threw me for a loop were "Jigsaw Feeling","Metal Postcard","Lands End","Icon"(possibly the disc's best cut)and "Blue Jay Way".The sound mix is nothing short of the best.TRUE Siouxsie&The Banshees fans will not be let down.

4 out of 5 stars from a long time fan August 24, 2003
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

I picked up this CD after reading many reviews, many negative, and after purchasing a bootleg VHS of one of the shows (don't worry, I've purchased the "official" DVD as well). I was aware of Sioux's... creative... use of notes and tones, but I was still unprepared when I finally slid that disc into my player and spun it up. This disc is for the true, dyed in the wool, Siouxsie & the Banshees fan-- no question about it-- from her choice of songs to the performance. In general, I'm not a big fan of the "live CD" from any band, preferring the crisp perfection of the studio mix. However, I *am* a fan of the work of Sioux and co., from beginning to end (yes, even their late work) and own all on CD (including bootlegs, b-sides and re-mixes). This disc will join that monumental legacy without apology.

For me, like others, I enjoyed the excellent musicianship from the band from start to finish (from my non-musician point of view), but Sioux doesn't really seem to warm up her voice until Voodoo Dolly. Additionally, often in a live performance, artists introduce variations of the material; in the case of this one, for good or bad, she sticks to the tried and true. I also would have liked to have seen more tracks on this disc, preferably recorded from the last half of several performances, perhaps.

Bottom line: If you are a fan, you owe it to the band to send a message to the label, and bean-counters, that Siouxsie & the Banshees has not been forgotten. Nostalgia will smooth the Goddess' rough edges, and loyalty will forgive the unforgivable aural anguish of the low points of this performance.

If you are only a casual fan, buy Nocturne instead.

2 out of 5 stars What's the point?? August 17, 2003
1 out of 9 found this review helpful

I saw Siouxsie live on the "Itch" tour in San Francisco and my jaw dropped when I realised she couldn't hit the high notes. She was completely off key in some songs. They might have fixed this on the cd - you know these live cd's are actually rerecorded in the studio later-. But obviously her voice is not the same. Musically, if I remember there were only 3 instrumentalists, with the one guitar player having to play in a way that "filled" as much space as he could, instead of being able to play in a way that creates "ambience" like on their studio albums. Another dissapointment is that the album doesnt really have a strong "new" song in it! I mean after all these years, they could have written one new song! Few weeks after I saw the "Itch" tour, I went and saw "Midight Oil" live and thought to myself: "now this is realy good live performance and not that Siouxsie chick!".

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