The Times (2.12.99)

Decline of the Siouxsie nation

THE CREATURES. Anima Animus. (Sioux 4CD Pounds 12.49).

IT IS too soon for a Siouxsie and the Banshees revival, but in the meantime Siouxsie and drummer Budgie return to the fray with Anima Animus, their third album in the guise of the Creatures. As pop's most celebrated Darby and Joan act, they know each other's game inside out, and the marriage between her icy yodel and his marauding tom-tom tattoos is carried out with consummate poise.

But it is a curiously uninvolving collection, despite some intriguing rhythmic variations on Disconnected and the outlandishly dark lyrics of Exterminating Angel: "Ripping through your menstrual stream/Rising up taste of rusty can/And jagged-glass feeling again". And on the P.J. Harvey-ish Prettiest Thing and the Portishead-influenced Don't Go To Sleep Without Me, there are clear signs that these once proud innovators are now playing catch-up with current developments.

David Sinclair

Contributed by Jerry Burch.