La Voz

Issue date: 10/15/07 Section: Entertainment

Media Credit: Image courtesy of www.amazon.com

Punk Rock 101: In 1976, Susan Ballion of Bromley, England (whom you know as Siouxsie Sioux - formerly of Siouxsie and the Banshees and later The Creatures) launched a career spanning four decades, blazing the way for the likes of PJ Harvey, Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Shirley Manson of Garbage.

So when you delve into the enchanted world of Siouxsie's psyche via this remarkable album, "Mantaray" - and you definitely must - don't think to yourself that she's mimicking any modern style of music. Make no mistake about it; the artists you hear in her songs have adopted the signature style of the Ice Queen of Punk, not the other way around.

Sinister, sexy and flirtatious on the surface, this album seethes with raw, unadulterated honesty and bare-naked emotion.

Working outside the structure of a band for the first time, Siouxsie got busy with producers Charlie Jones (Goldfrapp) and Steve Evans (Robert Plant), and together they wove a tapestry of music that is pure magic.

Rising from the aftermath of her divorce from Banshees drummer and Creatures collaborator Budgie, and boasting ancient scars earned from 50 years of hardcore living, Siouxsie bursts into her solo debut with a proclamation of rebirth in the hot track "Into a Swan." Channeling Marlene Dietrich and Madonna, Siouxsie slips effortlessly into enchantress-mode in the sinfully vengeful romp "Here Comes That Day," and struts unabashedly into "Loveless," a wicked torch song that lingers and haunts.

In a stunner of a climax, Siouxsie absolutely bludgeons with the soul-wrenching ballad "If It Doesn't Kill You," a masterpiece that will leave you obliterated. Another standout is the gothic-pop ditty "About to Happen," reminiscent of early Devo.

"Drone Zone," chimes in as an avant-garde, poetic commentary on the mindless droning of daily life in modern consumerist society, while "Sea of Tranquility" provides a lush gothic landscape to dream upon and get lost in. In a final exacting blow, brutally truthful lyrics stating "you're in love with the idea of me," in the ballad "Heaven and Alchemy" bring down a killer finale.

Her defiant freedom of style, newly reinvented and entirely unhampered by the dictates of the status quo, mingles jazz (a la Shirley Bassey) and classic cabaret with industrial glam punk and a steady dose of the relentless, grinding feedback, percussive mayhem and slash and burn guitars that Siouxsie is famous for.

With the albatross of expectations hovering over the infamously coiffed head of this veteran glam- punk icon, releasing a solo album was a monster feat. Yet, Madame Sioux enters the arena armed and ready. Long live the Queen!

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