Album: Hyæna
Year: 1984
. . .
In 1984, Siouxsie & The Banshees released Hyæna, their first album on Geffen records here in the U.S., who also re-released all of their previous records, which I’m pretty sure was the same deal Geffen struck with XTC. In retrospect, I think the gamble was that by making the back catalog easier to find, they could build up a fanbase to break the future albums.
In any event, with ringer Robert Smith still in tow — though he was working on The Cure’s The Top album, Siouxsie and the Banshees released their sixth studio album, Hyæna, in June of 1984, and almost instantly, the opening track, “Dazzle,” became a KFSR staple.
And why not? Recorded with the London Symphonic Orchestra, “Dazzle” used the string arrangement not for width or atmosphere, but rather depth: when it well and truly gets going, “Dazzle” is a tidal wave of sound, with Budgie’s drums and Smith’s guitar nearly getting washed away. Though if you listen hard enough, both men are doing some pretty great shit: Budgie’s drums crash and rattle; Smith’s guitar glistens and roars.
And Siouxsie Sioux? She just sings right through the tumult like it wasn’t even there. I mean, maybe she’s a bit lower in the mix than usual
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
Dazzle, it’s a glittering prize
And I’m not gonna lie: I love the extra bit of reverb every time she sings “dazzle, it’s a glittering prize,” which pretty much the only lyric I’ve ever really known in this song. Because “Dazzle” is one of those songs that is a description of what it does.
That said, outside of college radio, it wasn’t like “Dazzle” got a lot of airplay, though it was the first Siouxsie and the Banshees record to make the Billboard album charts, even if it was only 157. After that, she started occasionally hitting the U.S. dance charts with a series of arty (natch) dance-pop singles: the massive “Cities in Dust,” the intentionally silly “Peek-A-Boo,” and, of course, “Kiss Them For Me,” which was an actual hit single here in 1991, making it all the way to #23 on the Billboard pop charts.
I thought about writing about these songs — as well as the joyous horn-drenched cover of Iggy Pop’s “The Passenger” that led their 1987 covers album, Through The Looking Glass — but I didn’t really have anything coherent to say about any of them. And my guess is that t that there’s probably a lot of great songs in the second half of the Siouxsie and the Banshees catalog that I’ve just never gotten around to discovering. Which, as always, is on me.
“Dazzle”
“Dazzle” Official Music Video
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