Yr Mangled Heart

Love And Anger-Kate Bush

Its funny, if you asked me which Kate Bush track I'd write about first, this would not be it. But its beautiful. Just insanely so. Even before the Bulgarian choir comes in. And by the way, when the Bulgarian choir comes in, prepare to have your knees buckle.

There are some songs that I feel I should explain why I like. There are some that I think you should just listen to. This is how the song opens, with this

it lay buried here
it lay deep inside me
it's so deep I don't think that I can speak about it
it could take me all my life
but it would only take a moment to
tell you what I'm feeling
but I don't know if I'm ready yet
you come waltzing into this room
like you're walking into my arms
what would I do without you?

frankly, if you haven't reacted to that or don't get it, fuck off

Dazzle-Siouxsie & the Banshees

Purists will say, they were a band. I mean, one of the members was Budgie, Siouxsie's husband and collaborator for 3 decades. Yet, still, the person you'd remember after this band, well....let's just say you wouldn't say "god, I love the drummer"

Yeah, I know. You think she's Goth. Thats not her fault. I mean, yeah, she and The Cure started the whole shebang. The whole Goth thing. Which, like hair metal and folk and well basically any genre, there is quite a bit to make fun of. The Cure took a bit of a different path...they embraced the Goth tag and became enormous. I love the Cure, but they are easy to pick on. He kinda looks like an oompah loompah.

Siouxsie didn't embrace the Goth label. Yet that isn't why she didn't make it big to the same pop level that The Cure did. She has inspired countless imitators...ats these imitators that have gotten Goth such a bad name. Because every witch and wraith and goblin and pancaked face lead singer afterwards just didn't have the chops or talent to compete with her. Maybe thats a slap at Robert Smith (not intended), but The Cure are easier to imitate. With Siouxsie, when you hear her songs, they songs require you to also imagine her singing them. Like Bjork, the Rolling Stones, Johnny Cash, James Brown...you cannot imagine somebody else inhabiting the song in the same way. Certain artists (aforementioned) write songs that are specifically fitted for them. Siouxsie is one of those artists.

In other words, she is the My Bloody Valentine of Goth. My Bloody Valentine put out Loveless, which bankrupted a label and that made the rest of the "shoegazing" phenomenon irrelevant. Siouxsise did the same--she just casts too big of a shadow. Unfortunately that didn't seem to free the artists behind her to follow her own footstep. Thats why female Goth singers get made fun of---they aren't Siouxsie Sioux.

Male Goth singers get off easier. Panic At What Disco? anyone? Its not that the Cure aren't amazing. Its not that Disintergration isnt a remarkable watershed moment? Its just that Robert Smith always read his own reviews, followed and participated in his evolution to icon status. Siouxsie didn't...in fact, she rebelled against. And still ended up there. Much to her chagrin.

As an aside, there are two artists that remind me of her. One is PJ Harvey. Not really vocally. Kinda in the deep parts. More in the approach...in the I-can-do-what-I-want attitude


And Karen O. And yes, vocally. I'm always surprised that reviewers never mention. She can go to the same low register with power. But I digress.

Oh,and this song. Oh again, purists would say this isn't the best moment. Her biggest hit was "Kiss Them For Me"...also one of my faves.

But this was on a tape that a girl named Liz Owlsley made me. She sat in front of me in senior english in Crown Point Indiana and she looked like the lead singer of Romeo Void. A big girl, sexy, dark makeup...kind of foreboding. But she carried herself sexy, which big white girls generally do not do. One day in English, we were talking music and the bands we liked. Couple of weeks later, for my birthday, she brought me the following: Spleen And Ideal by Dead Can Dance, The Queen Is Dead and Juju by Siouxsie & the Banshees. Well, and my world changed forever.


Like "Somewhere" by Sondheim...there is a place for us LOL...well, by chance i listened to Juju first. And thus I heard "Dazzle"...my very first introduction. Is it her best moment? Well to me...yes. Its certainly my favorite. Its also her gayest moment. It certainly couldn't be more dramatic...the orchestra...the strings...then, that voice. THAT voice.

And thats when I knew there was a world outside of what I saw every day. And i got through it all. Did Siouxsie save my high school experience? No.....not exactly. But she should definitely have been invited to my open house. For fucks sake, no expense was spared. We got Bronco's chicken!

White Chalk-PJ Harvey

This is the title track of her new record. It should be called Career Suicide. Just kidding! Yeah, wow. As if she needed some other reason to elevate her to icon status. Yet, she decided to make the equivalent-for-her-fans of Lou Reeds Metal Machine Music. Ok sorority girls...u like to put my songs on break-up tapes....stay with me!

At first....the whole record...wow....I didn't know what to thinkof it. Ok...this is a woman who told an ex to "lick her injury". And its not that she hasn't had soft moments before. Its just ...well, it caught me offguard

And initially Ididn't like it. I kept wanting teeth. But, ah, on this record....well, that requires work. Its not as immediate as her other stuff. But trust me...there's teeth.


To me, this is a record that has to be taken as an 'album'. Its to be listened to as a piece of work...a whole entity. I've been swayed....I kinda think its brilliant. It doesn't sound anything like Aerial by Kate Bush...but there is a similarity in the way its structured. A whole album. But in the day of the IPod.....this isn't as friendly....this is an album. You have to flip it over.

And its a ghost story. The whole thing. Haunted. It flits in and out of your consciousness...like something you can only see in the corner of your eye, not head-on. Thats how I feel when i listen to this.

Yr Mangled Heart-The Gossip

Lest I sound old. Ok.....here we go. Wanna know who is carrying the torch (not that Siouxsie isn't still recording...or Kate Bush...or PJ Harvey)? I'll put it like this...here's a woman whose voice jumps out of the speakers, whose voice soundtracks nights and breakups and whose voice you remember the moment you hear it.

Honest. My boyfriend, who doesn't even like rock, saw The Gossip with me. He think she's incredibly honest and so herself...even if he was wowed.

Is there really a better description than that? Read reviews....they will mention the voice, the fact that she from the Seattle/Olympia Washington Sleater-Kinney sphere....that she is a big ole white trash dyke from Arkansas. Yeah ,yeah...too easy.

It really is, in the end, about her voice. There are not tricks. Just her voice...massive, beautiful, fucking angry. A way-too-much-wine anger. A sincere anger.

Oh and the song LOL. ...well, I just want what I deserve. Thats all