Superstition (Siouxsie and the Banshees album)

History

The album was produced by Stephen Hague, known for working with New Order and Pere Ubu. Hague used techniques that Siouxsie Sioux did not approve of later, such as computer-based production. She stated: "There are still songs I like on it, like 'Kiss Them for Me' and 'Drifter', but we were trying a different kind of working style, a different kind of discipline, during which I really built a strong case against computers."

The band then spent two months on the road, from July until August, in the United States as second headliners of the inaugural Lollapalooza tour. The last date took place in Seattle on 31 August. Two weeks later, the album reached its highest position at No. 65 in the Billboard 200 for the week of 14 September; it spent 21 weeks total on that chart. It remained their best selling album in the US, with 358,000 sold copies.

Critical reception

Superstition was well received by critics. Q gave it a 4-star rating, saying: "They pop it up with sweet string textures on the single 'Kiss Them for Me', bear down on the maritime metaphor of 'Drifter' with doomy foghorn and bells effects, give it the all but Twin Peaks dreamscape for 'Softly'." Melody Maker highly praised the first single: "'Kiss Them for Me' is gorgeous, wicked and glamorous". In the same paper, reviewer Jon Wilde described Superstition as "a giant record about obsession, phobia, perspective and emotional tyranny". Wilde said that the song "The Ghost in You" was "a furiously pretty six note refrain that haunts long after the needle has returned to safety". In a 4 out of 5 review, Select praised the album, saying that "Kiss Them for Me" was a "passionately laidback" single, "exotic" and "funky", with "an underlying hush of electro pulsebeat" making it dancefloor friendly. The rest of the album was also reviewed favourably. "Drifter" was compared to the soundtrack of a Sergio Leone film with a touch of "ethereal sensuality", and "Silver Waterfalls" was qualified as "gorgeous". The reviewer noted that the album ends with the "delicate" "Softly", with lyrics bare and tender enough to be almost like Scott Walker. Glyn Brown concluded: [It is] "ambitious".

Legacy

Dave Sitek of TV on the Radio hailed the group for their song "Kiss Them for Me". Sitek stated: "I've always tried to make a song that begins like "Kiss Them for Me". I think songs like "I Was a Lover" or "Wash the Day Away" came from that element of surprise mode where all of a sudden this giant drum comes in and you're like, what the fuck?! That record was the first one where I was like, okay, even my friends're going to fall for this. I feel like that transition into that record was a relief for me. Really beautiful music was always considered too weird by the normal kids and that was the first example where I thought, we've got them, they're hooked! I watched people dance to that song, people who had never heard of any of the music that I listened to, they heard that music in a club and went crazy."

Track listing

All music composed by Siouxsie and the Banshees.

All lyrics written by Siouxsie Sioux, except where noted.

Personnel

Charts

Album

Singles