Reflections In The Looking Glass: A Tribute To Siouxsie And The Banshees

Various Artists - Alternative - Industrial | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 1, 1996)
• Original Release Date: October 8, 1996
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Cleopatra
• ASIN: B000001JVP
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #370,591 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The dead can dance!, May 18, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Reflections In The Looking Glass: A Tribute To Siouxsie And The Banshees (Audio CD)

This album consists of 14 synth heavy interpretations of some of the best Siouxsie and the Banshees songs.
Highlights include a striped down rendition of 'Night Shift' by Switchblade Symphony, a manic, guitar driven 'Head Cut' by Corpus Delecti and a dreamy, ethereal version of 'Last Beat of My Heart' by Edera.
Not a bad collection at all, really. Only disappointments are Waiting For God's too slight version of 'Red Light' and Stone 588's plodding 'Night Shift'.
Fans of newer goth music and even industrial shouldn't be unhappy with this.

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unfairly Maligned - Give it a Chance, August 12, 2001

By 

Riposte (Ireland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Reflections In The Looking Glass: A Tribute To Siouxsie And The Banshees (Audio CD)

After reading the reviews posted about this record I felt obligated to write a more even handed assesment than those found here.This album is infact nowhere near as terrible as others would have you believe.Ordinarily I would have afforded this effort only 4 stars but I felt in this instance that five was more appropriate to raise the overall rating.
I don't know what possessed the other reviewers here to post such negative comments.I would imagine that some were simply not interested in Siouxsie's importance in the Gothic movement, in which case a tribute album comprised entirely of Gothic/Industrial/Electro artists wouldn't be to their liking anyway (The first review notes The Banshees' influence on Hole,Garbage and Curve but fails to note their far more prominent influence on nearly every Goth band that came in their wake.Musically The Slits had more of an influence on Hole and their contemporaries than Siouxsie, who merely brought female rock vocalists to the attention of pop audiences).As for the others, I can only assume that they are hardcore Siouxsie purists who cringed at the sound of Banshees classics being debased by the use of distorted synthesizers and re-interpreted by a new breed of Goth bands.Give this album a try with an open mind and you'll see that most of the songs measure up well and some even surpass the originals.
The album starts of with Goth/Pagan band Inkubus Sukkubus's version of Spellbound.Not much different from the original but the Inkies patented orchestral sound adds a depth to the music lacking on Juju.The next one up is Israel performed by Mephisto Walz.Again, not much deviation from the orginal but sharper production creates a more Gothic feel.Switchblade Symphony blend their post-Serpentine Gallery trip-hop style with Juju's Night Shift to create one of the weakest moments on the album.The only thing that holds this song together is the fact that it's one of Siouxsie's best.Without a doubt the weakest song however, has to be the lamentable Silly Thing.The performance neither adds nor takes away from the original, it's simply not a good song and should never have been here in the first place.On the other end of the spectrum, one of the finest moments on this album is the fantastic Corpus Delicti cover of Head Cut.Doing away with the calculated temperance of the original, the song is compressed to under 3 minutes of roaring guitar riffs - bettering the original in the process.Other highlights are The Shroud's delicate interpretation of Red Over White and the Stone 588 (who sound remarkably like Siouxsie even on their own records) version of Night Shift which,while not varying greatly from the original, has an edgier rock style to it.Other songs worth checking out are Ex-Voto's Industrial guitar-charged Monitor and the excellent electronic groove of Red Light performed by Waiting for God.The rest are mostly electro-tinged reworkings of old classics which work surprisingly well, whether it be the tender minimalism of Last Beat of My Heart or the cold electronic rhythm of Skin.One to watch out for though is the unfortunate Last Dance cover of Cities in Dust where Kelly Garret muddles her way through an under-produced mess on top of a bland guitar performance.
All in all if you're a fan of Goth/Industrial music give this one a go.It has it's weak points but not nearly as many as the other reviews here would indicate.Sorry about the overly-long review but I didn't feel like just dusting off my thesaurus to look for 17 different ways of saying awful.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A PHANTASMIC MIND ALTERING DREAM OF UNTAINTED COVERS, July 28, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Torrance, California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Reflections In The Looking Glass: A Tribute To Siouxsie And The Banshees (Audio CD)

This album has so many incredible covers it's hard not to like it. Inkubus Sukkubus starts out the album with a distraught reinvention of "Spellbound", Switchblade Symphony & Stone 588 capitolize on the gothic beat of "Night Shift", while Collide improves the tainted "Obsession" into a phenomenal meloncholy ballad. For the darkwave fans Corpus Delicti pounces on "Head Cut" (also the only male vocal cover on the album). Regenerator utilizes an 80's beat that strengthens "Ordinates Of Gold", and The Shroud's "Red Over White" is a dramatic masterpiece.