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Siouxsie Soux has left an indelible mark on the history of darkwave music, of which she has become one of the major icons.
A former groupie of the Sex Pistols, the importance of the godmother of gothic in the birth and development of the genre can be understood even from small details, such as the fact that people began to expressly talk about gothic rock precisely with regard to the music and stage presence of Susan Dallion, and the love-hate relationship that characterized her professional and non-professional union with Robertino Smith, who took his first steps into the music world by playing guitar in the band of the queen of dark-punk.
The partnership between the frontman of the Cure and the beautiful Susan was materialized, discographically speaking, with the live album “Nocturne,” recorded at the legendary Royal Albert Hall in London, and with “Hyaena.” Released in the U.S.A. with the addition of the Beatles' cover “Dear Prudence,” “Hyaena” is a particular album and much darker than its predecessors, and in this sense, it is greatly influenced by Robert, who handles the guitar and keyboard parts on this platter, having just completed the dark trilogy of the Cure (Seventeen Seconds, Faith, Pornography) with his main group.
In fact, it is an album that is not easy to assimilate, but extremely fascinating. The collaboration between our heroes is truly compelling, and the strength of the album is, needless to say, Siouxsie's voice, which, compared to previous works, becomes more modulated and enchanting, and thus, so to speak, less shouted. The opening of Hyaena is entrusted to the symphonic “Dazzle,” a piece where Susan's delicate, almost echoing vocalizations contrast with the claustrophobic and dark sound instrumentally created. The subsequent “We Hunger,” with its obsessive progression, is suffocating and provides a perfect backdrop for Soux's vocal performance, the best, in my opinion, of the album, which becomes poetic and captivating. More subdued and relaxed is “Take me Back,” which could lend itself to the soundtrack of a quiet lullaby (it's not guaranteed, however, that the fruit of sleep will be dreams or nightmares).
It continues with “Belladonna,” with its dreamy atmosphere and psychedelic choirs. The top, according to this writer, is reached with “Swimming Horses,” a song characterized by the sweet notes of the piano, played almost in a western style, accompanying Dallion's now fuller voice. Even in the following “Bring Me The Head of The Preacher Man,” we hear sounds reminiscent of rustic duels, complete with tumbleweeds rolling in the desert and pistols aimed at each other.
More rhythmic and fast is “Running Town,” where the sound of keyboards is prominently displayed, amidst screams and background choirs, in a sort of infernal carillon. The album closes with the somber “Pointing Bone” and the arabesque “Blow the House Down.”
In conclusion, it must be said that lovers of the genre will certainly not be able to do without listening to this album, especially those who adore the dark trilogy of Smith's creation, of which, personally, I consider this "Hyaena" a kind of ideal continuation.
Ah, I almost forgot, … . God save the Queen!
Tracklist Lyrics and Samples
01 Dazzle (05:31)
The stars that shine and the stars that shrink
In the face of stagnation the water runs
Before your eyes...
Swallowing diamonds
A cutting throat
Your teeth when you grin
Reflecting beams on tombstones
A jamboree of surprises
Playing Russian roulette
Or the Lucky Dip
A clenched fist to your heart
Coal dust on your lungs
A silver tongue for the chosen one
Heavy magnum in your side or a bloody thorn
Skating bullets on angel dust
In a dead sea of fluid mercury
Baby piano cries
Under your heavy index & thumb
Pull some strings -- let them sing
The stars that shine and the stars that shrink
In the face of stagnation the water runs
Before your eyes...
Dazzle -- It's a glittering prize
Before your eyes...
It's a glittering prize...
02 We Hunger (03:31)
A ravenous greed
For a brood to feed
A lusting spawn
On a weakened fawn
Do you hunger for this
Sucking leeches feel the need
Sucking dry unsaited stomach pops
Sharpened knives with flying sparks
Sagging bodies with stretch marks
And your belly aches
Do you hunger for this
Bled white with avarice
As the rust creeps corrosion seeps a rotting seed
Eat me -- feed me
With your belching foul breath
Your destructive kiss death
Do you hunger for this
The bliss of a sweet kiss
Shanghai'ed on a locust flight
The thirst of a vampire bite
Fills the emptiness inside
Consuming everything green-eyed
We Hunger
04 Belladonna (04:30)
sunrise breaks its fatal perfume
and I'm dizzy to distraction
the scented clutches of a siren's lament
embrace the sound of enchantment
five fathoms deep, the lovers leap
the lanterns of skin beckon us in
o belladonna
nightfalls decent shrouds her intent
in a halo of sharks and a skeleton mask
o belladonna
daylight devours your unguarded hours
burnt and charred, this bride of scars
o belladonna
lost in the glare, all of us stare
the patterns of pain, scream out your name
o belladonna
05 Swimming Horses (04:04)
Falling in your, falling in your in your arms
Fish on a line, learns to live on dry land
Thrown back again to drown
Kinder with poison
Then pushed down the well or a face burnt to hell
Feel the cruel stones breaking her bones
Dead before born
Words fall in ruins -- but no sound
She's dying of your shame -- she's maimed by your pain
He gives birth to swimming horses
Fish on a line, walking on dry land
But back in the water to drown -- we drown
Floating in sky
He gives birth to swimming horses
Take a ride on the tide with the assassin at your side
the weightlessness under water -- forgets in slow motion
And watches pointless tortures
He gives birth to swimming horses
Floating in sky like fishes can fly through your arms
07 Running Town (04:04)
Just a step onto the street
An uncomfortable heat
Rattlers at your feet
In running town
Helter-skelter all a-swelter
The impetus is seething
In running town
A thousand curses
Full speed ahead
Lockjaw aggression
And buzzing irritations
Deride the friendly martian
In running town
Helter-skelter all a-swelter
The impetus is seething
In running town
A thousand curses
Full speed ahead
If you gaze into her face
She'll glare back & drown
All refugees in the sea
In running town
A thousand curses
Full speed ahead
Full speed ahead...
Laughter rebounds & strangles
That sound in running town
In running town...
08 Pointing Bone (03:49)
From the fury pit, a reek of misery
Like a trumpet groan, tornado moan
The splendor splits like a golden skin
He and the wizards cry like humming birds
In treasure glows, your weeping wings
And a slaughter grins, on a pleasure spike
When held on high by the riverside
Like a torn-throat child
In a jackals hide
Cool water dies, vile diamond eyes
Silent in flamingo ease
Distant in troubled trance
Within a whirlpool, we're breaking our backs
The tears of the moon
The sweat of the sun
Sacrificial hearts for a pointing bone
With a Gorgon's head and a cloak of skulls
They're kindling fires in open wounds
Pointing bone
In a jaguar skin, blood matted mane
Beacons blaze toward a waning moon
When held on high by the riverside
Like a torn-throat child
In a jackals hide
Cool water dies, vile diamond eyes
The tears of the moon
The sweat of the sun
Sacrificial hearts for a pointing bone
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