The Scream (album)

The Scream
Studio album by Siouxsie and the Banshees
Released 13 November 1978
Recorded 1978
Studio RAK Studios, London, England
Genre Post-punk
Length 39:04
Label Polydor
Producer
Siouxsie and the Banshees chronology
The Scream
(1978)		 Join Hands
(1979)Join Hands1979

The Scream is the debut studio album by British alternative rock band Siouxsie and the Banshees. Recorded in one week and mixed in three during August 1978, it was released on 13 November 1978 by record label Polydor. Before the album's release, the band had developed a strong reputation as a live act, and had achieved a Top 10 UK single with "Hong Kong Garden" (which did not appear on the original album).

Upon release, The Scream was widely acclaimed by critics. It was also a commercial success, peaking at No. 12 in the UK Albums Chart. The album is regarded as a landmark of post-punk.[1]

Background

In late 1977 and early 1978, Siouxsie and the Banshees received major press coverage but failed to secure a recording deal. A fan undertook a graffiti campaign in London, spraying the walls of the major record companies with the words "Sign the Banshees: do it now".[2] Polydor finally signed them in June.[3]

John McKay had become the band's guitarist in July 1977; music historian Clinton Heylin argued that the recruitment of McKay along with the formation of Magazine and PiL between August 1977 and May 1978 marked the "true starting-point for English post-punk".[4] Several songs from The Scream had already been recorded on BBC Radio 1 for two John Peel sessions: "Mirage", "Metal Postcard" and "Suburban Relapse" premiered in November 1977, and "Overground" and "Carcass" were aired three months later in February 1978.

Recording and music

The band in 1978, at the time of the recording: John McKay, Kenny Morris, Siouxsie and Steven Severin

The Scream was recorded in one week during August 1978, and mixed in three weeks.[5] The band was in the studio while their debut single "Hong Kong Garden" was released; it reached No. 7 in the UK Singles Chart.[6][7]

J. G. Ballard and William Burroughs provided the reference points for the lyrics of The Scream.[8] In a track such as "Suburban Relapse", the band wrote about suburbia, where they were born and raised. Steven Severin emphasized: "That's why J.G. Ballard resonated so much with us, because all his near-future tales were set in this bizarre suburban wasteland. Suburbia is a place where you can imagine any kind of possibility, because there's space, not urban clutter".[9]

Simon Goddard described the music on The Scream as a "claustrophobic abyss of angst and angularity".[1] The opening cut, "Pure", had a spacious, atmospheric sound. Journalist Miranda Sawyer noted that Siouxsie's "vocals came from a distance", that "there was a lot of space" and that "the sound was big and slow".[8] Kris Needs remarked that at the end, it seeps out into "Jigsaw Feeling", a "song of disorientation and bewilderment" with a "huge, sometimes awe-inspiring" sound".[5] The last song, "Switch", was arranged in three different sections, "for the different people who swap jobs with terrible results - scientists, general practitioner and vicar".[5]

McKay co-wrote most of the songs. Only "Carcass" dated from the band's time with Peter Fenton, their guitarist from January to July 1977.[10] Siouxsie wanted the Banshees' music to be "cinematic"; Bernard Herrmann's score to Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho inspired the music of "Suburban Relapse", where the guitars echo the knife-screeching violins of the famous shower scene.[11]

Title and sleeve

The title of the album was in part inspired by the film The Swimmer starring Burt Lancaster in which main character Neddy Merrill intended to swim home, using open air pools. Climbing over garden fence, from pool to pool, his journey put him into a state of mental and physical exhaustion, and in the end, Goddard said, "all Neddy Merril could think to do was scream, [...] as a scream of exhausted jubilance after a troubled, arduous journey".[12]

The idea for the cover was Siouxsie's. Photographer Paul Wakefield met with her and the band to discuss the project. Wakefield later said, "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. We used a number of 1000K and 2000K lights around the pool edge. I used school kids as models and they pretty well ran riot."[13]

Release

The Scream was released on 13 November 1978. It was an almost instant commercial success, peaking at No. 12 on the UK Albums Chart.[14]

The Scream was reissued in the UK on 27 October 2005 (28 October in the U.S.) as part of Universal's Deluxe Edition series. The new edition featured a remastered version of the album on the first disc, while the second disc contained demo and live tracks together with the singles from that period. A single-disc edition of the reissue was released in 2007.

In November 2016, a vinyl picture disc edition was released, mastered from the original tapes by Kevin Metcalfe.[15] A 180g vinyl reissue of the original edition, remastered from the original ¼” tapes and cut half-speed at Abbey Road Studios by Miles Showell, was released in September 2018.[16]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[17]
Mojo (2005 deluxe edition)[18]
Q (2005 deluxe edition)[19]
Record Mirror[20]
Rolling Stonevery favourable[21]
Sounds[22]
Uncut (2005 deluxe edition)[23]
ZigZagvery favourable[5]

Upon its release, The Scream received critical acclaim. Critics in the British and American press generally agreed that the album was a landmark of its time and that the band's willingness to experiment made it a challenging listen.

The Scream was hailed as "the best debut album of the year" by Sounds.[24] Critic Peter Silverton gave the album 5 stars out of 5,[22] and the paper listed it at No. 2 in its end-of-year best album list.[25] Record Mirror also published a 5-star review, saying: The Scream "points to the future, real music for the new age. [...] It is vital, it's moving. It's a ... landmark." Chris Westwood praised the cohesion between the words and the music: "The album's lyrical frame of mind is perfectly reflected in the work of [guitarist] McKay. [Bassist] Severin and [drummer] Morris; constantly shifting, restless, controlled agression, they are as essential as Siouxsie."[20] Melody Maker described the sound as "strong, abrasive, visceral and constantly inventive, with a thrust that makes the spaces equal partners to the notes", with the critic comparing the album's textures to that of Wire and Pere Ubu.[26] ZigZag qualified it as a "magnificent record", with reviewer Kris Needs writing: "I can't think of another group who could have made an LP so uncompromising, powerful and disturbing, yet so captivating and enjoyable [...] It is certainly a special classic to join milestones like [David Bowie's] Diamond Dogs, Roxy [Music]'s first and [Lou Reed's] Berlin. This is music of such strength and vision that you just can't not be moved by the time they swing into the final climactic passage of 'Switch', the closing track." Needs qualified the sound as "huge, sometimes awe-inspiring" and commented that drummer Morris created "one of the best drum sounds I've ever heard – the deep echo and floor-shuddering mix accentuating his muted Glitter Band stomp".[5] Critic Adam Sweeting began his review by saying, "This is a chilling, intense masterpiece". Sweeting then noted that the musicians "have perfected a group sound which is powerful but streamlined", adding that "the words and music combine to produce coolly dazzling images".[27]

Several journalists from NME also praised the record. Nick Kent first stated that the band sounded "like some unique hybrid of the Velvet Underground mated with much of the ingenuity of Tago Mago-era Can." He then focused his attention on the opening track, saying: "'Pure' takes the sound to its ultimate juncture, leaving spaces that say as much as the notes being played. Certainly, the traditional three-piece sound has never been used in a more unorthodox fashion with such stunning results."[28] In December 1978, another critic from NME, Paul Morley, described the music on The Scream as "unlike anything in rock":

It is not, as some would say, chaotic – it is controlled. Each instrument operates within its own space, its own time, as if mocking the lines of other instruments. Known rock is inverted, leaving just traces of mimickry of rock's cliches – satire that often bursts with glorious justification into shaking celebration (as on "Helter Skelter"). It is easy to gain attention by doing something which is crudely obviously out of the ordinary, but the Banshees have avoided such futile superficialities: it is innovation, not revolution, not a destruction but new building. It has grown out of rock – Velvets, Station to Station, Bolan. And Siouxsie's staggering voice is dropped, clipped, snapped prominently above this audacious musical drama, emphasizing the dark colours and empty, naked moods.[29]

However, in her review of the album, NME's Julie Burchill was unimpressed, stating that the Banshees sound was "a self-important threshing machine thrashing all stringed instruments down onto the same low level alongside that draggy sub-voice as it attempts futile eagle and dove swoops around the mono-beat. Their sound is certainly different from the normal guitar-bass-drums-voice consequence. But it’s radically stodgy [...] loud, heavy and levelling, the sound of suet pudding".[30]

Kurt Loder gave a very favourable review in Rolling Stone, remarking that The Scream was a "striking debut album"; and that its "sound, stark though fully realized (thanks partly to a most simpatico co-producer, Steve Lillywhite), is lent added intellectual dimension by a series of disturbingly ambiguous lyrical images".[21]

One year later, critic Ronnie Gurr wrote about the album: "The Scream, a masterpiece that, for six months, I failed to recognise as such, was a harrowing listening experience."[31] Writer Don Watson of NME later described the album's music as "something that whipped the past into a great whirlpool of noise, pulling the future down".[32]

Legacy

Since its release, The Scream has received a number of accolades from the music press. NME rated it at No. 57 in their "Writers All Time 100 Albums" list in 1985.[33] Uncut magazine placed it at No. 43 in their list of the 100 greatest debut albums.[34] It was featured in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.[35]

The Scream placed the group among the pioneers of post-punk, as peer Robert Smith of the Cure contended:

"When The Scream came out, I remember it was much slower than everybody thought. It was like the forerunner of the Joy Division sound. It was just big-sounding."[36]

Joy Division's Peter Hook, who saw the group in concert in Manchester in 1977,[37] said about The Scream: "Siouxsie And The Banshees were one of our big influences [...] The Banshees first LP was one of my favourite ever records, the way the guitarist and the drummer played was a really unusual way of playing."[38] The Scream had a strong impact on other musicians. Massive Attack covered and sampled "Metal Postcard (Mittageisen)" on their song "Superpredators (Metal Postcard)" in 1997 for the soundtrack to the movie The Jackal.[39] While playing his favourite records on BBC Radio 6 in 2012, Jim Reid of the Jesus and Mary Chain commented: "'Jigsaw Feeling' from The Scream album [...] it was brilliant, amazing. That's a reason why I made music".[40] Morrissey had "Mirage" played during intermission before all concerts of his 1991's Kill Uncle tour.[41] Morrissey's main composer, Boz Boorer, also rated The Scream highly, ranking it second in his "Top Five Desert Island Album Selection".[42] Boorer stated: "Another big influence on my playing is John McKay [...]. That first Siouxsie record was quite incredible sounding, and it started me in thinking that music didn’t have to be any certain way—that there could be many different influences in music and it didn’t have to be a single, strict avenue. That first Banshees album has a lot of jarring guitar that rubs against what you’d think was going to or maybe should happen over a part, and that changed my thinking quite a bit".[43] Garbage lead singer Shirley Manson cited it as one of her all-time favourite records.[44][45] The Scream was also hailed by the singer of Suede, Brett Anderson.[46] Nick Rhodes of Duran Duran said: "The Scream [...] is a brilliant record – so enigmatic and different".[47] Faith No More covered "Switch" in concert[48] and cited this first Siouxsie and the Banshees' album as one of their influences.[49]

Track listing

Side A
No.TitleLyricsMusicLength
1."Pure" Siouxsie Sioux, Steven Severin, John McKay, Kenny Morris1:50
2."Jigsaw Feeling"SeverinSeverin, McKay4:39
3."Overground"SeverinSeverin, McKay3:50
4."Carcass"Siouxsie, SeverinSiouxsie, Severin, Peter Fenton3:49
5."Helter Skelter"John Lennon, Paul McCartneyLennon, McCartney3:46
Side B
No.TitleLyricsMusicLength
6."Mirage"SeverinSeverin, McKay2:50
7."Metal Postcard (Mittageisen)"SiouxsieSiouxsie, McKay4:14
8."Nicotine Stain"SiouxsieSiouxsie, Severin2:58
9."Suburban Relapse"SiouxsieSiouxsie, McKay4:12
10."Switch"SiouxsieSiouxsie, McKay6:49

Personnel

Siouxsie and the Banshees
Technical

References

  1. 1 2 Goddard, Simon. Mozipedia: The Encyclopaedia of Morrissey and the Smiths [Sioux, Siouxsie entry]. Ebury Press. p. 393. Produced by Stev Lillywhite, it arrived between Magazine's Real Life and Public Image Ltd's Public Image as the second in that year's triptych of albums layering the foundations of post-punk.
  2. ↑ Mark Paytress (2003). Siouxsie and the Banshees: The Authorised Biography. Sanctuary Publishing. ISBN 1860743757.
  3. ↑ Heylin 2006, p. 461.
  4. ↑ Heylin 2006, p. 460.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Needs, Kris (November 1978). "Siouxsie and the Banshees: The Scream". ZigZag. Rock's Backpages (subscription required). Archived from the original on 5 January 2010. Retrieved 1 October 2012.
  6. ↑ Clinton Heylin (2006). Babylon's Burning: From Punk to Grunge. Penguin Books. p. 440. ISBN 0-14-102431-3.
  7. ↑ "1978 Top 40 Official UK Singles Archive - 16th September 1978". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 24 June 2013.
  8. 1 2 Sawyer, Miranda (16 October 2012), Spellbound: Siouxsie and the Banshees, BBC Radio 4, retrieved 2 January 2016
  9. ↑ Paytress, Mark (November 2014), Her Dark Materials (252), Mojo, p. 79
  10. ↑ Heylin 2006, p. 132.
  11. ↑ "Episode 3". The Movie That Changed My Life. Episode 3. 31 July 2009. BBC Radio 2. Retrieved 30 April 2013.
  12. ↑ Goddard, Simon (2005), The Scream [liner notes deluxe edition], Universal Music
  13. ↑ Featured Album Cover Artist Portfolio – Paul Wakefield, albumcoverhalloffame, 12 December 2014, retrieved 15 January 2016
  14. ↑ "Siouxsie & the Banshees [uk charts]". officialcharts.com. Retrieved 29 April 2013.
  15. ↑ "Siouxsie and the Banshees The Scream Picture Disc 2016". Thesoundofvinyl.com. Retrieved 4 July 2016
  16. ↑ https://thevinylfactory.com/news/10-siouxsie-and-the-banshees-albums-reissued-vinyl/
  17. ↑ Raggett, Ned. "The Scream – Siouxsie and the Banshees". AllMusic. Retrieved 3 May 2013.
  18. ↑ Cameron, Keith (November 2005). "Siouxsie and the Banshees: The Scream". Mojo (144): 122.
  19. ↑ Segal, Victoria (November 2005). "Siouxsie and the Banshees: The Scream". Q (232).
  20. 1 2 Westwood, Chris (14 October 1978). "Siouxsie's Stampede [The Scream – review]". Record Mirror: 16.
  21. 1 2 Kurt Loder (4 October 1979). "The Scream – review". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 19 October 2007. Retrieved 3 May 2013.
  22. 1 2 Silverton, Pete (14 October 1978). "If Screams could kill [The Scream – review]". Sounds: 33.
  23. ↑ Reynolds, Simon (November 2005). "Killer wail". Uncut (102).
  24. ↑ Silverton, Pete (25 November 1978). "The Most Elitist Band in the World". Sounds.
  25. ↑ "End of Year list". Sounds. 23 December 1978.
  26. ↑ Birch, Ian (21 October 1978). "Scream and Scream Again". Melody Maker.
  27. ↑ Adam Sweeting. "The Scream - review". 1979 - reproduced in Ray Stevenson's book: Siouxsie and the Banshees - Photo Book (1983). ISBN 0711903018.
  28. ↑ Kent, Nick (26 August 1978). "Bansheed! What's in an Image?". NME.
  29. ↑ Morley, Paul (23 December 1978). "Siouxsie and the Banshees". NME.
  30. ↑ Burchill, Julie (18 November 1978). "Album Review by Julie Burchill. Well, Whatever Would Edvard Munch Have Said? Siouxsie and the Banshees. The Scream (Polydor)". NME.
  31. ↑ Gurr, Ronnie (1 September 1979). "Join Hands – review". Record Mirror.
  32. ↑ Watson, Don (22 February 1986). "The Howling". NME.
  33. ↑ "Writers All Time 100 Albums". NME. 30 November 1985.
  34. ↑ "100 Greatest Debut Albums". Uncut. August 2006.
  35. ↑ Robert Dimery (2005). 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Cassell Illustrated.
  36. ↑ Steve Sutherland (1 October 1983). "Disturbing Old Ghosts". Melody Maker: 37.
  37. ↑ Hook, Peter (2011). The Hacienda: How Not to Run a Club. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1847391773. I went to see Siouxsie and the Banshees at The Oaks, and I still have my ticket
  38. ↑ "Playlist – Peter Hook's "Field recordings". Q magazine. 23 April 2013. Archived from the original on 18 January 2018. Retrieved 10 January 2017.
  39. ↑ "inflightdata.com – Massive Attack Discography – Tune Info + Lyrics – superpredators". inflightdata.com. Archived from the original on 13 July 2011. Retrieved 30 April 2013.
  40. ↑ "Jim Reid on BBC Radio 6 Music". bbc.co.uk. 4 March 2012. Archived from the original on 3 March 2012. Retrieved 4 August 2015.
  41. ↑ "Morrissey Under the Influence". passionsjustlikemine.com. Retrieved 30 April 2013.
  42. ↑ "Q & A Pt 4". bozboorer.com. 21 November 2006. Archived from the original on 28 September 2007. Retrieved 3 August 2012.
  43. ↑ Von Bader, David (30 March 2017). "Boz Boorer: Triple Agent". premierguitar.com. Retrieved 10 April 2018.
  44. ↑ Dave Simpson (28 March 1998). "Rebellious Jukebox". Melody Maker.
  45. ↑ Kerr, Dave (29 Jun 2012), "Under the Influence: Shirley Manson", theskinny.co.uk, retrieved 20 May 2016
  46. ↑ "Some Current Fascinations". brettanderson.co.uk. Archived from the original on 20 July 2011. Retrieved 30 April 2013.
  47. ↑ John Freeman (15 April 2013). "The Sounds Of Planet Earth: Nick Rhodes Of Duran Duran's Favourite Albums". quietus.com. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
  48. ↑ "Faith No More - Switch - Melbourne 2010". youtube. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
  49. ↑ Wiederhorn, Jon (4 November 2014). "Interview: Faith No More Give Update from the Studio". Revpmver. Retrieved 12 November 2014.
Sources
  • Heylin, Clinton (2006). Babylon's Burning: From Punk to Grunge. Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-102431-3.
  • Paytress, Mark (2003). Siouxsie and the Banshees: The Authorised Biography. Sanctuary Publishing. ISBN 1860743757.
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