Siouxsie Sioux - 'Mantaray' (Universal) Released 10/09/07

Siouxsie Sioux – the outsiders outsider releases her debut solo record to mixed hopes and fears. Can she pull it off? Can she achieve better or even come close to creating something greater than what she started in 1978? The answer – she doesn’t care. It’s Siouxsie bloody Sioux for ****s sake, have some respect! For 30 years Siouxsie Sioux has been an iconic figure in the musical hall of fame, garnering a fanbase not as omnipresent as those of the Pistols, but just as loyal, her music just as important. Surviving and outlasting almost all of her yesteryear contemporaries, The Banshees and The Creatures, it is finally time for the Punk queen to stretch her legs and see what she can come up with completely uninhibited by expectations that are attached to a band reforming or releasing new material and explore a new side within her musical prowess via ‘Mantaray’ – a seething electro, cabaret, industrial, punk, pool of sonic assault.

"I’m on the verge of an awakening/ a new kind of strength for me” opens ‘Into A Swan’, symbolic of Siouxsies current state of rebirth - giving herself another chance to see what she can do with music, eagerly traipsing new ground yet overly attempting to appeal to a younger audience whilst backing music sounding like it was conceived by Trent Reznor strives to appear like the soundtrack to a nightmare. It dawns very quickly that ‘Mantaray’ is going to be one hell of an eclectic and difficult album.

Bombastic industrial beats whilst Rammstein guitars flail around sporadically, adding to the trip rather than taking control of the album, are main courses upon this sonic buffet, but as comparisons can be drawn very quickly, one has to wonder whether it is Siouxsie Sioux proving she is a musical chameleon with her finger on the pulse of groundbreaking music, showing her appreciation for bands she has some sort of connection with, or a tired musician resting on her laurels and writing tunes easily accessed due to a reminiscent sound…harsh to think in such a manner, but when tracks like ‘About To Happen’ come off like a speed addled Franz Ferdinand b-side and the blatant Yeah Yeah Yeahs rip off ‘One Mile Below’ sounds almost stolen from ‘Fever To Tell’, it’s hard to distinguish between an artist becoming a product of her influence, or giving a kind nod to her “Influencees”.