Customer Reviews

Hyeana

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Hyæna" was the first Siouxsie album I ever bought, after hearing "Dazzle" on the radio. I was soon blown away by the rest of the tracks as well.

The album is an odd array of moods and styles. "Dazzle" - the opening track - is an over-the-top swirl of guitars, rattling percussion and strings. It's followed by "We Hunger", a tormented and frantic bit of misery with wailing, discordant guitars and tribal beats. Then they shift gears on "Take Me Back", a spare, stripped-down song in which the musical accompaniment consists of an organ and brush-style drums. The fourth track - "Belladonna" - prominently features an oboe, and is a rather pretty song. The rest of the album continues shifting around the same way - Spanish-style songs, Dervish-style songs, a Beatles cover - but, somehow, they manage to make it all fit together wonderfully.

"Hyæna" is in the psychedelic, experimental vein of "A Kiss In The Dreamhouse" in its variety of sounds and textures. As others have noted, The Cure's Robert Smith handled the guitar work on "Hyæna", and does an excellent job. "The Top", which The Cure released the same year as "Hyæna", is rather similar in style and worth checking out as well. Strange, atmospheric, moody and often bizarre, "Hyæna" is one of my favorite Siouxsie albums and definitely worth picking up (the generally disliked "Tinderbox" remains my favorite - go figure).

Although not generally considered to be amongst this seminal punk band's top 5 albums, Hyaena contains at least four magical moments. As such, it is not a bad album at all and in fact I like it more now than when it was released in the middle 1980s.

The first is the swirling Dazzle, a soaring melodic rock ballad that all by itself makes the album worthwhile. Swimming Horses is another classic of post punk psychedelic rock, quite an atmospheric number. Then there's their cover of The Beatles' Dear Prudence, where the arrangement and Siouxsie's voice turn a love song into an eerie noire affair.

We Hunger has a bubbling, jerky rhythmic backdrop whilst Take Me Back is a sparse, mid tempo ballad. Belladonna is another of my favorites and the 4th masterpiece of the album with its beautiful melody line and poignant mood. Bring Me The Head Of The Preacher Man is a long brooding piece of dense instrumentation and claustrophobic airs and Running Town has some interesting tempo changes and stunning guitar playing.

Hyaena has stood the test of time very well. The aforementioned great songs, especially Dazzle, Belladonna and Swimming Horses, rank amongst this legendary band's best songs. Fans of Siouxsie And The Banshees might also like Children Of God by Swans and the albums Thirteen Masks or Sacrificial Cake by Jarboe.

It initially took the Banshees over a year to complete this album and is another excellent release though muddled at times. The disc opens with "Dazzle" and right away gets your attention. The strings have a fury unmatched by guitars ( originally Siouxsie wrote the string section on her toy piano! ). "We Hunger" is an unassuming Banshees song though Sioux's vocal performance is flawless. "Take Me Back" is the weakest song on the album though that doesn't mean it's a bad song, it just sounds unfinished. "Belladonna" is a keyboard-heavy ballad which is a taste of future songs. In "Swimming Horses" you can hear the influence that Robert Smith has on the group, one of their finest moments. The Banshees interpretation of the minimal Beatles track "Dear Prudence" is utterly breathtaking. They took a pretty though forgettable song and produced a classic. "Bring Me The Head Of The Preacher Man" is without a doubt one of the most underrated Banshee songs ever. Sioux's vocal layerings and Budgie's pounding along with the fine acoustic guitar shows a progression from "Spellbound". "Running Town" is a good guitar pop song while "Pointing Bone" just isn't quite on it's level. The album closes with "Blow The House Down". Where "Dazzle" demonstrated the power of strings "Blow The House Down" explodes with a cacophonous woodwind arrangement, the track also contains one of Budgie's most amazing percussive arrangements. Just one of many examples of the brilliance of the Banshees.

Hyaena is the Banshees most melodic sounding album and Siouxsie gives her best vocals here as well. The album starts off with one of their finest songs ever,"Dazzle", in a big majestic way. The song starts with an orchestra playing before a pounding drum and driving guitar. Siouxsie's voice is layered over the top telling tales of "a dead sea of fluid mercury" and stagnating water running. A very unusual song that you immediately have to play again. Robert Smith was a full time member for a very short time and his influence is definitely heard here. The clumsy pianos and keyboards on "Take me Back", "Swimming Horses" and "Running Town" sound like they could be on a Cure album.
Elsewhere on the album is a swooning version of the Beatles "Dear Prudence" (their highest charting single ever) and the very darkly lovely "Belladonna". The only song on here that goes nowhere is "Bring Me the Head of the Preacherman". As ever, Siouxsie's lyrics are like listening to a madwoman tell stories around the fire. Turn off the lights and light a candle before listening to this album.

It really surprises to hear people knocking this album. What surprises me even more is people knocking "Take Me Back." "Take Me Back" is one of the albums best tracks. The organ and Siouxsie's vocals are awesome. If you just got into Siouxsie and the Banshees I highly recommend this album! Another favorite of mine is the "Bring Me the Head of the Preacher Man." A delightfully dark song with a lot of emotion behind it. These songs will virtualy encapture you and your imagination. Other great songs are We Hunger, Swimming Horses, Dazzle, Dear Prudence, Belladona, and Pointing Bone. Tinderbox is the only other Banshees album that comes close to matching Hyaena's splender.

Ah, what a fantastic album. The most melodic of Siouxsie and the Banshees' releases. To me, it was like seeing an old friend after years and seeing the changes they've made. If you enjoyed Kaleidoscope, Nocturne, The Scream, and the rest of the earlier albums, you'll most certainly adore Hyaena.

Simple math: Siouxsie + Robert Smith = one great album. This album balances everything great the band had done musically to where the new ground the band would break with great success. "Old school" Soulsxie: Theatrics: "Pointing Bone," Bring Me The Head of the Preacher Man," and "Burn Your House Down" all have that atmosphere found on albms like Juju and Join Hands. However, you have to get though some of her most non-conforming music to get to the traditional stuff.

The "New school" Siouxsie catches you from the first track. "Dazzle," is a tornado of strings and guitar. "Take Me Back" is were the doors were blown off for me. What you have is Siouxsie singing a very simplistic story to Hammond organ music. By far her most emotional song to that point..."Where you come from isn't always home." Who can't relate to that! Finally "Swimming Horses" is Siouxsie using imagery at its's best, and musically was off the norm for the band like "Take Me Back" was, and it worked. It's too bad Robert Smith went back with the Cure, with Steve Sevrin on bass and being the best songwriter in the band, along with Budgie's pushing the envelope of the band's overall sound through his percussion and Siouxsie's PERFECT voice, they could have made (more) beautiful music together.

I recently bought this album and need my fix of it everyday. This was my first siouxsie and the banshees album I ever bought, I first heard them on a mixed tape from a friend who put Arabian Knights and Hong Kong Garden on my tape (which are phenomenal songs). I have been buying siouxsie and the banshees albums ever since. But I cant seem to find an album that beats Hyaena. My favorite song on this album is "bring me the head of the preacher man" it starts with the distant voice of Siouxsie sioux singing in a deep slow taunting voice and falls right into a strong instramental of eastern sounding melodies with hard drum beats and siuoxsie sioux's astral screams. It is a beautiful song, although it almost ties with "blow the house down" and "dear prudence". Even my least favorite song, "take me back" has grown on me from listening to the album so much. Siouxsie and the Banshees would not be one of my favorite bands if it wasnt for this album (although they would still be up there). I have Ju Ju, Peep show and Tinderbox, but I cant help but to put this particular album in whenever I want to hear siouxsie and the banshees. Her snarls and screams blend into a textured instramental and her haunting voice crawls under your skin. Definitely buy this album and if you dont like it the first time you hear it, give it another chance because it is sure to get better and better.

This may be the best of the Banshees. It is certainly my favorite but, I admit, that's partly for sentimental reasons.

The songs on this album epitomize the dreamy swirls of elation and misery, pain and pleasure that became the hallmark of this period of their music. Add to the lyrics' psychedelic imagery a production lush in its layers of sound - strings and keyboards, vocals and percussion - and the result is transporting, haunting. The band creates a complete and integrated vision of the world, casting deep amber light and dark shadows across the sensations and thoughts we all experience. But never mind my self-indulgent ranting: you can even sing along.

Dazzle is as rousing as any pop-rock anthem could be, while describing what Gothic would mean to follow-up bands for years to come. Blow the House Down has a kind of exhausting urgency that makes the perfect close for the album. And their cover of Dear Prudence is lovely and inspired.

Buy this album and learn to love it. It defines not just a place and time, but a very particular and lasting point of view.

Siouxsie and the Banshees are one of the most artistic and compelling groups in rock. Many things make this band great: the main ingredient is the evocative poetry of Sioux's lyrics which is beautifully complimented by an appropriate atmospheric setting for each song. Sioux's voice is skillfully affected to convey whatever meaning or emotion she desires. Budgie is an incredible drummer who likes to make use of his whole kit to weave his sophisticated beats. Steve Severin, who wrote three of the ten songs on HYAENA (Siouxsie wrote the rest except for "Dear Prudence"), contributes great bass guitar which often throbs and drones, another S&B trademark. And it's a shame Robert Smith had such a short stint in the band because he fits in so perfectly here.

All of these fantastic qualities are evident on HYAENA. S&B paints pictures of wonderment, confusion, repulsion and disillusionment. "Dazzle" starts the album out with faerie-tale orchestration that soon relents to a pulsing drone of rythem. "We Hunger" is certainly an evocative tune - this time of desperation. "Take Me Back" is another one of Sioux's twisted puzzles that play with one's notions of reality. While all of these songs are great, "Belladonna" may be the weakest of the bunch - still love it though - "five fathoms deep the lovers leap . . ." "Swimming Horses" is a fantastic song that deals with abusive treatment suffered by women in certain troubled countries (read it in a Siouxsie interview). "Dear Prudence" is a joyous sunburst rereading of the Beatles classic. "Running Town" is rather Beatlesque, "Pointing Bone" is rather sinister, and the two most brilliant songs on the album are "Bring Me the Head of the Preacher Man" and "Blow the House Down." In the latter, they really build up the "dervish frenzy."

If you like highly creative music by those who can create worlds you can practically step into, then this is the band for you!