… … … Impossible to forget … …
We are in 1983, Robert Smith (The Cure) and Steve Severin (Siouxsie and the Banshees) under the name of GLOVE decided to create a project giving a name to this unique creature that came to light…. “Blue Sunshine”, also because Robert was tied to the record label which prevented him from being able to concretely sing with a band other than The Cure, but it was done anyway, that’s how it was and that’s how it went! Robert will appear as a voice only on two tracks, “Mr. Alphabet Says” (one of the most beautiful of the album) and “Perfect Murder”, and he was entrusted with production, direction and the legendary guitar, with Steve the rest, as well as arrangements, production and direction. For the role of female voice in all the other tracks, it was given to Jeanette Landray (dancer and impromptu singer - what a bunch of madmen, but great ones). An excellent track is also “Sex Eye Make Up”. You might say, what kind of Album is this? The answer ….
It is a nightmare, difficult to review, to listen to, to interpret, etc., etc., but believe me, it's worth it, I couldn't leave it in the shadow of memories. It’s a dark-psychedelic album; when you listen to it, without knowing neither the plot nor the reason, you immediately perceive a kind of uneasiness and despair that is deliberately desired and inflicted, more simply imposed with specific intention, that is, pain by will, with all the irony of fate, highlighted. It is disturbing and anguishing, but it is so calibrated and captivating that, once listened to and listened to again and again, it highlights this parenthesis of experience desired by Robert and Steve, which from an initial experiment will lead to a result, I would say, surprising, a slow, hypnotic, transcendental, an eros suffocated by pathos, an infernal cauldron in the most total oblivion, the true hell, or Dantean purgatory.
Both explore this eclectic world, still mysterious to them, for what concerned the present Cure or Siouxie lines, but if you know both genres and mix them, think of what explosion could come out. The lyrics summarize the contents, in fact in this nightmare they talk about orgies, sex, lsd drugs, death, murders, funerals, paranoia, which they themselves say they have crossed by abusing them (I find it hard to doubt it). Album full of drums, synthesizers, electronic percussions, keyboards, and guitars, very instrumental, all intelligently calibrated which generates a whole, it seems absurd to say it, but pleasant. In the '80s it is true that everything was born, but this Album was shocking!. The result can be difficult to assess, but if you have delved deeply into these groups and know their original entity, then it can be said that this parenthesis was strong!
Two great artists have explored unexplored areas exposing their most hidden schizophrenia, they had fun!, before returning to their respective legendary groups. And curiosity becomes the desire to listen … …
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Like an Animal (04:44)
One mile in the air that's where she lives
Her body looks so thin and pink and small
Dropping eggs from nervous shaking hands
And swallowing her fingers as they fall
Two people dance on the edge
Three of us push them away
There's nowhere to go
We're all in this
But nothing can hurt us at all
Fight her all you want you'll never win
Couldn't we just once leave her in bed
Let the dry air cut her happy throat
Hide her heart and lose her happy head
First I was a murderer then I was a saint
Now I live on stolen time
Twist and run like paint
Like an animal
Tuesday in the sun
Nothing could be worse
Not now not ever not anymore...
02 Looking Glass Girl (04:56)
Like a looking glass girl
In a minature world
Saw you dance like dice
And tumble to the floor
Like a looking glass girl
In a minature world
Whirl your disney arms
And jump the merry-go-round
The umbrella man is shouting
We shake his paper hands
There's mirrors down beneath
Our feet so "let's skate down
The street" the casino man is
Laughing he wears a shivering hat
We peel away like tinsel
Stick like splinters to the wall
Like a looking glass girl
In a minature world
She saw you dressed in rags
In-and-out of a jack-in-a-box
Because she's a looking glass girl
In a minature world
Whirl your see-saw-arms
And ride the catherine wheel
(foot, foot)
03 Sex-Eye-Make-Up (04:24)
Run around the chairs in your Sunday dress
It's the best thing money can buy
Or leave me on the stairs with my feet in the air
I think that I'm jazzy like Christ
One more cigarette and the car burns slow
Burning like the body waiting at home
Throw out your teeth and call all your friends
Someone's coughing took away my breath
Inches of glass all shiny and new
Screaming laughing fucks me to death
One more boy full of writhing white mice
Rolls over again in a London disguise
The blood bath woman in room number one
Sex-eye-make-up tonight
She just woke up today to do as she's told
Do you want to touch her?
04 Mr. Alphabet Says (03:50)
Here comes the book
The book of rules
If you play this game
You won't stay the same
You could win your golden teeth
Be a spinning top
Use a riding crop
Mr Alphabet says
"Smile like a weasel
As I cover you...
Cover you in treacle"
We all know impatience is a sin
So do as you're told to do
It's so rewarding to
And you could win the tin man's heart
Be a chiming clock
Lie on the chopping block
Mr Alphabet says
"Give me all your money
Just to cover you
Cover you in honey"
Don't be afraid
There's no marmalade
Don't be afraid
I wouldn't even dream of it!
06 Punish Me with Kisses (03:12)
Your morning smile of torture
Holds me in its grip
You trace the taste of yesterday
The bruise upon my lip
You touch my eyes and hypnotize
And slip inside my heart
I wait for this forever
But we always fall apart
You want to hold me closer
And secretly entice
You take the size of shadowed men
And punish me with kisses every night
This espionage is sweeter now
Now that we're alone
But I meet your eyes and then despise
All we call our own
I write my name in lipstick
On the mirror as I leave
To stay would be too dangerous
To break the make-believe
You want to hold me closer
And secretly entice
You take the size of shadowed men
And punish me with kisses every night
07 This Green City (04:34)
Someone's evil laugh shoots down my back
Shapeless and aging we start to run
Through the tangle of your broken words
This cheap impulse falls so dry
In the maze. I burn down
Turn... you turn my skin around
Wishing my eyes could look down
Wishing my eyes could look down
Down on me...
Stairs fall like jewels as we near the door
You fold through my neck and arms like crystal
So black, so black with charm and breath
We turn to face the dying sun...
This green city rains down on me
This green city rains down
08 Orgy (03:19)
A disease is under my fingernails
It stains me like a tattoo
Back on the rack
Aching with time
Your face is familiar
From another crime
And we could swim
We could swim
My little fishes and me
Overgrown senses prickle and spark
The flesh is in the palm of my hand
Back on the rack
Love under will
Your face is familiar
From another kill
A tongue explodes into my mouth
A taste of coma and tears
Back on the rack
My shape of rage
Your face is familiar
From another cage
And we could swim
We could swim
My little fishes and me
09 Perfect Murder (04:28)
Move inside my daydream
Like fingers in a glove
Twisting round and round and round
Round and round and round with love
The meeker sleeker circle girls dressed in docile white
Spinning on a hill they follow the dracula kite
The first idea flew thin and uninvited from the sky
I reached out my hands and held the knife of ice
Very thin red water flowed underneath my skin
I turned their eyes blue children
The perfect murder
Wait until the darkest coldest summer nights
That's when it starts
But if you blink you'll miss the fun
You'll lose their pretty hearts
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By Algeone
Blue Sunshine features a more original and at times more bizarre series of musical settings than Smith’s group standards.
Blue Sunshine is not an epochal album, but it has become a cult record among niche new wave enthusiasts.