LP - 180g Black Vinyl. Remastered from the original ¼” tapes and cut at half speed at Abbey Road studios, London. Both artwork and audio have personally been overseen and orchestrated by Siouxsie Sioux and Steven Severin.
Remastered reissue of Siouxsie and the Banshees' debut LP The Scream from 1978. Despite evolving from a group of Sex Pistols fans, Siouxsie and the Banshees eschewed the cliches of punk, offering instead an austere and bleak music.
Bassist Steve Severin and drummer Kenny Morris provide simple, teutonic-style patterns over which Siouxsie Sioux wails in the manner of former Velvet Underground chanteuse Nico. The Scream was recorded quickly and efficiently but has since become regarded as a landmark post-punk album and a cornerstone of early goth.
The sleeve is uncharacteristically vivid and colorful... A little more about the album cover, cuz that’s why you’re here, right? Photographer Paul Wakefield executed the photoshoot, but the idea was all Siouxsie’s.
"The idea was to shoot disquieting and unnerving images underwater in a swimming pool – you can’t scream underwater. I wanted to be able to completely control the lighting, and so an indoor pool was the only option. I scouted quite a few pools, but when I saw this pool in the YMCA in Central London, which was dark blue tiled with light blue lane stripes instead of the normal reverse colors, I knew it was the ideal location. I wanted to give it an eerie underwater night-time feel, and this setting was perfect. I used school kids as models and they pretty well ran riot.”
For the uninitiated, check out “Mirage,” “Jigsaw Feeling,” “Nicotine Stain” and their version of the Beatles "Helter Skelter", which the Banshees interpret with the full knowledge of its inspiration for murderer Charles Manson.
The Scream is an apt title for such desolate music.
Tracklist:
A1. Pure
A2. Jigsaw Feeling
A3. Overground
A4. Carcass
A5. Helter Skelter
B1. Mirage
B2. Metal Postcard (Mittageisen)
B3. Nicotine Stain
B4. Suburban Relapse
B5. Switch