On the surface, I immediately have a problem with Siouxsie and the Banshees' Through The Looking Glass. That being that it's a collection of covers performed by the band. Sorry, but much like Van Halen was panned for Diver Down, and Guns N' Roses for The Spaghetti Incident, there's no reason, or excuse, for an established band to record a cover album. The fans expect, and deserve better.
I won't pan it from the starting gate, but I will stress that it's lazy.
As I was greeted by the opener, This Town Ain't Big Enough For Both Of Us, I would have sworn I was listening to a hard rock iteration of the band ABBA, despite being a Sparks song. It had that distinct sound, albeit with a heavy rock overtone layered in. Point being, it resonated, and I dug it a lot.
The Disney Jungle Book covered Trust In Me, is somewhat out of place when the album is based on the Lewis Carroll Alice In Wonderland novel. Why not choose any of the number of songs from that Disney film? It would have better fit. Though as I sit here and think about it, I can't exactly think of one which wouldn't have been silly.
Knowing nothing about the original, I will say that I enjoyed their cover of the Bob Dylan song, This Wheel's On Fire, as well as Billie Holiday's Strange Fruit. But again, I have to take a step back. These versions, while good to me, have the benefit of me not knowing how the originals sound. Further, had I not read that this album was all covers, I would easily have been mistaken to think that Siouxsie and the Banshees brought their "A" game to the writing table.
Look, I'm not going to pan something for being good, even if it is a cover, but again, stress that it's lazy. Which makes me all the more annoyed at how much I enjoyed Through The Looking Glass. If this were my first Siouxsie and the Banshees album, I would almost feel duped if I then went and bought something else from them only to be greeted by a completely different sound.
Iggy Pop would even praise Siouxsie for her rendition of his song, The Passenger. However, I wouldn't go as far as he did by saying she improved it. It's a decent rendition, but in terms of this one, I'd rather hear Iggy's.
In comparison to The Cure's Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, which I've reviewed already in a prior post, and which Through The Looking Glass is contending with today, the Banshees will get the victory. As I said in my original review of Kiss Me, and again in my retrospective review yesterday, it's just not that good. It has its hit, which is cool, but in the sheer volume of songs I grabbed for my shuffle from Looking Glass, it has to be crowned the winner. I'm going to go back to this one far more often than The Cure's '87 entry.
Our final round starts tomorrow when the Banshees' 1988 released Peepshow will go head to head with The Cure's 1989 released Disintegration. From there, we'll get our final winner across all that went on to the last round.
First, we have to deal with the business of who the winner is between The Cure's The Head On The Door, and Through The Looking Glass. Despite my ranting about the latter being a cover album, I really did like this one. Which is why it was really difficult for me to choose between the two. But, someone's gotta win, and that was The Cure.
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| THIS WEEK ON THE CHARTS July 25, 1981 |
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| THIS WEEK ON THE CHARTS July 25, 1987 |
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