Customer Reviews

Peep Show

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

PEEPSHOW was their most polished release to date, but it's a very artistic record and far from a calculated bid for mainstream acceptance, even though it greatly benefited from the stellar "Peek*A*Boo" single. It's not my personal favorite Siouxsie record, but it's still an excellent set of songs.

My personal impressions of PEEPSHOW:

"Peek*A*Boo" - a hip-hop inflected, totally infectious track about "peepshow" booths. Simultaneously playful and dark. Big, schitzophrenic dance sound with booming bass crossed with classic Siouxsie creepiness. I think it's one of their all-time best tracks and they never did anything else quite like it (note: this is coming from an "old-school" Siouxsie freak who typically favors JU JU and KALEIDESCOPE the most). Some fans complain that this album and this song in particular signaled "sell-out" for Siouxsie, but I never gave a rat's ass about that kind of thinking. For years, they have inched their way towards the mainstream, anyway. Their cover of the Beatles' "Dear Prudence" from HYAENA a few years earlier was radio-friendly and great enough to rocket them to the top of the charts but it didn't. The following album TINDERBOX yielded "Cities in Dust" which did become an underground club hit. "Peek*A*Boo" became an even bigger dance-floor smash (in certain locales at least), and I thought that was great; they certainly did and do deserve a lot more recognition than they ever got. *****

"The Killing Jar" - This song is apparently about someone using magic to kill. It has sort of a topsy-turvy feel to it. Bassist Steve Severin is prominent and he wrote it as well (He and Sioux each do about half the songwriting). It's a good tune, but it suffers a bit for coming after "Peek*A*Boo," admittedly a hard one to follow. Regardless, I give it ---> ****

"Scarecrow" - This is a genuinely creepy one with a sinister-sounding guitar. Starts off quiet until the charging chorus kicks in. *****

"Carousel" - This song and "Burn Up" in time went from being my least favorite on the album to being my favorites. "Carousel" is a swirling, mysterious trip down memory lane, "remembering those funhouse thrills." Beautiful and haunting. *****

"Burn Up" - sounding like a song from "Oklahoma!" that came out of an evil, twisted alternate reality, this is a joyous, country-fried celebration of a pyromaniac. The whole song slowly builds in tempo like a runaway fire until it reaches a head-spinning climax. Really wild! *****

"Ornaments of Gold" - a luscious (if intentionally cynical) celebration of material riches to "protect our hearts from this cruel world." Very modern production with what sounds like a drum machine, although I wouldn't be surprized if super-talented drummer Budgie did the drumming himself. ***1/2

"Turn to Stone" - another great S&B tune, I love the melody and the Spanish guitar touches. Has a great atmosphere and lots of tasty studio effects. ****

"Rawhead and Bloodybones" - strange, spare and tiny sounding, this one's freaky. ****1/2

"The Last Beat of My Heart" - grand, gorgeous and full of wonderment. To me, this song captures the feeling of the moment you realize you've fallen in love and want to be with this person til your dying day. Credited to both Severin and Sioux, this has got to be one of their most beautiful songs. *****

"Rhapsody" - Like "Burn Up," the final track on PEEPSHOW brilliantly builds to a climax throughout its entire duration. A powerful, intense album closer. ****1/2

In my humble opinion, Peepshow is the most fully realized, both musically and thematically, of the Banshees' many albums and therefore unmatched. Siouxsie's voice is at it's best, sensuous at times, sometimes even loving, and yet aggressive when necessary. Musicianship is at a real highpoint with all the players working seamlessly together. The production is tight throughout and all of the songs are fresh and inspired. Many (most?) "goth" fans will pick Juju as the Banshees' best album, but let's face it, "goth" is really more about attitude than musical quality. With Peepshow, Siouxsie and Company [maddened] old fans, confounded the pundits and released a brilliant work full of energy, playfulness and fantasy.

When you listen to this album ..U should put the lights out and use a head phone to feel the beauty of every track...from Scarecrow to Killing Jar and the Last Beat of my Heart....This album is goth on the sentimental side....all i can say about this album is it's so Tragicaly Beautiful....BUY IT!!!!!!!!

"Peepshow" was my first Siouxsie album. I bought it never having heard the band before. After I listened to it, I decided that I must have every album. This album is masterful, and remains one of my favorite albums of all-time by anyone.

I'm not the most qualified Siouxsie head out there, having only turned on to them with Hyaena, but this is an incredible piece of music. I don't want to label it with goth or synth pop or whatever, because it doesn't do the album justice. Suffice it to say that this has some of the most memorable, tight, and powerful songs I've ever heard. Each one is a well crafted jewel with piercing sounds, haunting melodies, and Siouxsie's unique brand of vocals; breathy, snarling, foreboding, sexy, dreamy, and always hypnotic. There are mental images, ala Pink Floyd, that come with each song, as if each is a movie soundtrack unto itself. Music that conjures up visual images is a rare find and this album has them from start to finish. I have listened to this countless times for decades now and I still enjoy the hell out of it. It doesn't get old and it does not have the dated quality of much that surfaced in the 80s. It has been called one of the more approachable records by this unusual and sadly underrecognized band, but know that there is much to like for any fan of good melody, keen lyrics, and well produced musical vignettes.

The best word I can think of to describe this album is: autumnal. I'm not even sure that makes sense. Let me put it this way: this is an album that should be listened to on a autumn night, preferably around Halloween, when there is a slight chill in the air. Songs like 'Scarecrow', 'Burn-Up' and 'Rawhead and Bloodybones' are very appropriate for Halloween, and 'Carousel' has a very "Something Wicked This Way Comes" feel to it.

'Burn-Up', with it's out-of-control-locomotive beat, is an excellent song to listen to while driving on the freeway.

The only drawback to this album is that "Peek-A-Boo", while a good song, doesn't sound like it belongs on this album after you listen to the other songs. The other songs seem to mesh together (at least for me) with a pseudo-19th Century/Victorian Era feel. "Peek-A-Boo"'s sound is too modern to really fit.

Bottom line: Although I don't think "Peek-A-Boo"'s sound really fits in with the rest of the album, this is in every other way a truly great album to own.

i have to say this is probably my favourite siouxsie album.
my favourite song would have to be arabian knights but i love this album the best.
tracks 1-5 and 8 seem to be quite dark and the others are more sparkly. it's one of their more gothic and synth-based albums as opposed to their former raw, punk edge.

01. Peek A Boo
this doesn't fit in with the rest of the album because of it's content and style, but it's a good song, about a peepshow. it's a big-beat, up-tempo, eccentric, accordian-lined synth-pop track
9/10

02. The Killing Jar
a classic siouxsie track. it's quite pretty, not a fave on this album but it's a really good, catchy track with a liquid melody and ripple-like rhythm
8/10

03. Scarecrow
one of my favourite tracks on this album. it starts of slow the first time you listen to it, but you get into it, fast. a dark, cold song with a creeping, haunting bass-line with a determined, charging chorus underlined with spooky synths which finishes off in pretty ethereal-like humming
10/10

04. Carousel
starts of very slow and takes patience but, along with scarecrow it's one of my favourite. a dim, pulsing synth line backed with the occasional sliver of a traditional fun-fair theme. a really really pretty and soft track until at about 2.22 minutes, when she sings about the carousel's horses, high pitched motor-like screeches slice through the track. possibly the horses? it brings about a nightmarish feel. at 3.10 perfectly postitioned, booming drums break in. an amazing track on this album and in siouxsie's history.
10/10

05. Burn Up
the most punky song on this album but with a definite country theme. you could even line-dance to it in a cowboy hat and boots. i'm not sure what it's about, all i get is something about "King Salamander" and he doesn't sound nice. an extremely catchy, enjoyable track, slightly demented, but yeah. you get me. at 3.21 minutes the song starts to significantly speed up. and i mean SIGNIFICANTLY. the fastest song i have heard... maybe in my entire life. it's mad
10/10

06. Ornaments Of Gold
a really pretty synth-goth-dance track with a memorable chorus
very shiny
8.5/10

07. Turn To Stone
probably the most gothic orientated track on this album, reminds me of some work by collide. i love the repetition-effects and the latin style guitars. the chorus is amazing, brought out by the pipe-organ, gothic-esque sythns.
9.5/10

08. Rawhead and Bloodybones
haha! evil!!
9/10

09. Last Beat Of My Heart
starts with a tribal, jungle beat but then progresses into an anthem-like melody. it is pretty but my least favourite song on the album. it's nice though
6/10

10. Rhapsody
i had never listened to this properly. it starts out very slow. but last night i discovered it properly and i love it already. for the first one-and-a-half minutes it sounds drippy, bleak, cold and mehanical, but then rushes straight into a dark waltz of a song. very melancholy but amazing. a great finale to the album. the song gradually gets more dramatic, more furious. you can imagine women in white gowns dancing and spinning with their partners in black suits, twirling around a ball-room, in the dead of night, moonlight streaming in. her voice is beautiful, lined over the strings. something very heart-breaking about this song. it just makes me want to cry. very soul-sapping
10/10

buy it
now

:O

This album was definitely one of the Banshee's best albums and from what I've read it's one of Siouxsie's favorites too. Each song on this album is so completely different from each other. The band experimented more on this album than probably any other. It starts off with accordians and clumsy drum beats on "Peek a boo" and ends with Siouxsie's opera like flings on "Rhapsody." Siouxsie takes a stab at a love song on "Last beat of my heart" and it works - in a very lonely sort of way. "Carousel" has a very warped carnival sound to it while "Burn up" is guaranteed to cause an anxiety attack with it's ever increasing speed that ends in a frenzied finale. This is a must for all Siouxsie worshippers!

Beautiful, haunting, energetic and insane. This is the kind of album that, for me at least, You can't help but keep coming back to. The styles are diverse, and the theme of the album seems to be a kind of twisted fairytale or fantasy. Siouxsie's voice really makes it. Five stars.

Peepshow was the first Banshees album I ever purchased (7 years ago), and to this day I still absolutely adore it. It is a rich and very well produced album from start to finish, and contains several of my favorite Banshees tracks. Songs like "Peek A Boo" from a band like Siouxsie and the Banshees tend to generate a lot of ire from the devoted fan base, but I've never understood the hate for it... it's certainly not like the other songs on the album, but the variety of Banshees output is one of the reasons I love them. The production on the album is also a bit of a departure, utilizing a great deal more studio meddling and odd effects throughout, again angering some fans of their older material. That reaction is completely undeserved. Peepshow doesn't sound like just any ol' Eighties album, I think it's one of the most timeless sounding works I've ever heard.

I remember a previous reviewer here calling Peepshow's sound "autumnal," and that's absolutely right on. Songs like "Peek a Boo," "Scarecrow," "Rawhead and Bloodybones," and "Carousel," are quite evocative of harvest time, All-Hallows eve style imagery and emotion. Humorously, having said this, I must add that this album sounds nothing at all like the more aggressive post-punk albums from the late Seventies and early Eighties that earned SATB the misplaced "Goth" tag. Anyway, this isn't punk, it's just very dark pop rock from one of the most creative and successful (former) punks of their generation. It's full of gorgeous melodies built upon some of Siouxsie Sioux's stongest vocals ("Turn to Stone" and "Rhapsody" stand out particularly). Steven Severin's bass playing isn't as noticeable here as on previous works, but his compositional skills are as strong as they ever were. I definitely recommend this album to the curious, it is a personal favorite and I think (though not everyone agrees) that this is one of the bands many high points.