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Since overcoming a loss of direction in the mid-80s, the Banshees have recorded their finest albums with the psychedelic voyeurism of Peepshow and the more symmetrical pop of the Stephen Hague produced Superstition.  Nevertheless, Siouxsie Sioux in particular found Hague's meticulous approach a constraint, and their choice of working with John Cale on half of The Rapture has allowed for a more intuitive, looser sounding album.

One of the tracks which reflects this Cale/Banshees chemistry is the single 'O Baby'.  Perhaps drawing inspiration from quiet days in her South of France home, the song follows a simple, goofy sentiment, shuffling across hot tarmac as she looks down at her feet and sees "the creases in my shoes smile up at me".  'Lonely One' is also whimsical in tone, while 'Stargazer' is more ethereal in its up-beat swing.

The title-track is a sublime melodrama, recalling the experimentation of 'Peepshow' and 1982's 'A Kiss In The Dreamhouse'.  Their tales of split personalities and emotional pain have lost the minimalist punk chill of old, but 'The Rapture' represents an intelligent twist on familiar Banshees' obsessions.  

7/10

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The cracks in the ground
Grin up at me
Even the creases in my shoes
Smile up at me
Thought it would end
In tragedy
But I'm swimming around
In your glory

O baby
O maybe
I'm the lost and found

Look at the stars
They're raining down
Even these jewels
Want to kiss your crown
Don't be afraid
It's just your face
Has that effect
And heavens'
Treasure case

O baby
O maybe
You're a paragon

I haven't felt this way before
Impossible to ask for more
Unanswered payers that went before
Lie like leaves upon the floor

Hang all the world
And universe
When I'm with you
They always seem perverse
I'm in a state
Of weightlessness
When I inhale
Your angel breath

O baby
O maybe
I'm the lost and found

Sioux - Lyrics
Sioux - Voice
Severin - Bass
Klein - Guitar
Budgie - Drums & Percussion
McCarrick - Keyboards

I know it's all a game
I know they're all insane
I know it's all in vain
I know that I'm to blame

This tearing apart

I think we all should die
I think we're dead inside

I know the purest rain
Wont was the bloody stain
I know it waits to strike
This sickness from inside

We'll tear us apart
You're still in my heart
Tearing apart

O you hold the rain

Far far away
Wild swans skim across a lake
Then soar in a white arc
Above my head I wake

Tearing apart
You're still in my heart
Tearing apart

Sioux - Lyrics
Sioux - Voice
Severin - Bass
Klein - Guitar
Budgie - Drums & Percussion
McCarrick - Keyboards & Cello

Been thinking how to escape?
This strait jacket of constraint
Been thinking what can be wrong?
With feelings that long to belong

Stargazing me
In an upside down sea

So weary
This strait jacket dreamer
So resigned
To continue to suffer
But you've learnt
That as you grow weaker
There's less hurt
Because there's much less to hurt

Stargazing me
In a tumbling sea
Up in the galaxy
Staring down on me

Stargazer
Reach out to touch
With your mind
That frees you so much
Stargazer
Kissing your kismet
With bright jewel
Encrusted scars

Stargazing me
In tranquility
Up in the galaxy
Staring down on me

Sioux - Lyrics
Sioux - Voice
Severin - Bass
Klein - Guitar
Budgie - Drums & Percussion
McCarrick - Keyboards

I am stone and I am blade
A sharp eternal instant
A darker heart a distant moan
Pleasures' deep and spectral instinct

Look me in the eye
Speak it to my face
My hate is cold
As I fall from grace

So wish away my gravity
A curse the one and only
Lay terror tight unholy flight
Bear witness to the descent

Yet nothing is forever
So come nearer and confess
But like a tender bruise
Temptation waits in one caress

Look me in the eye
Speak it to my face
My hate is cold
As I fall from grace

Cast me out and save your soul
From madness rhyme and reason
You banish doubt I'll spread the fear
You'd better start believing

Look me in the eye
Speak it to my face
My hate is cold
As I fall from grace

Severin - Lyrics
Sioux - Voice
Severin - Bass
Klein - Guitar
Budgie - Drums & Percussion
McCarrick - Keyboards & Cello

You buried it so deep
So safe in hidden sleep
But like a tell-tale corpse
Rises to the surface
Over-ripe & bloated
In naked time-lapsed truth
Thought it was lost forever
Remember this

How long has it been
Or have you forgotten
When you first forgot?
Now resurrection the phoenix
Aflame with pride & conceit
Remembers this

Wind blown trees outside
Applauding like the ocean
To the cacophony inside
The waves come rushing in
A crashing whispering
Drowning they drink me

Ah not forgotten
This is not forgotten
Remember this

Sioux - Lyrics
Sioux - Voice
Severin - Bass
Klein - Guitar
Budgie - Drums & Percussion
McCarrick - Keyboards & Cello

And I know I never knew you
Your mind your pain I will melt your winter tears
If you say you will
If you could say you will

Convalescing bruised I set my mind awake
Dare to take another look
If you say you will
If you could say you will

King of moon gloomy afternoon
Losing track of word & metre
Still shaking in this tear room
Like a sick child
Still shaking nothing reconciled
Like a sick child

Melancholia colliding out of mind
In a silver swirl I take a lungful in
Blow a fistful out if you could say you will

King of moon gloomy afternoon
Losing track of word & metre
Make your final touch people talk too much
Madman screams an unknown language

Still shaking in the tear room
Like a sick child
Still shaking nothing reconciled
Like a sick child

Budgie - Lyrics
Sioux - Voice
Severin - Bass
Klein - Guitar
Budgie - Drums & Percussion
McCarrick - Keyboards & Cello

Happy in solitude
Secure there's no-one to depend on
Scorning alms & good luck charms
Staring down to the rocks below

I was the lonely one
I didn't want no-one

An odyssey so solitary
Carries you forth to collide with me
Recognised familiar signs
We're hypnotised on the turning tide

You were the lonely one
Who didn't want no-one
I was the lonely one
I didn't want no-one

Here I stand on the shifting sand
Waves of lassitude wash inland
The lonely cry of a seagull flies
Into my mind and recalls a time

When I was the lonely one
Who didn't want no-one
You were the lonely one
No we didn't want no-one

Hear my hymn calling the lonely one
Hear my hymn for the lonely one

Sioux - Lyrics
Sioux - Voice
Severin - Bass
Klein - Guitar
Budgie - Drums & Percussion
McCarrick - Keyboards

I would see you falling down
Still I would have been around
Hated to hear the sound
As you fell and punched the ground
Such as miserable suicide
Performed before my eyes
Staggering about the town
Unaware I was around

I wouldn't have you
If you wanted me to
I wouldn't have you
You wouldn't have you

Feel the dead sea
Running through your veins
A sea of mercury
Dragging you down the drain

I wouldn't have you
If you wanted me to
I wouldn't have you
You wouldn't have you

Come searching for your little girl
But she hid in her oyster shell
Stupored and ill humoured
You left her with the swine and swill
Didn't you?

I wouldn't have you
If you wanted me to
I wouldn't have you
You wouldn't have you

Sioux - Lyrics
Sioux - Voice
Severin - Bass
Klein - Guitar
Budgie - Drums & Percussion
McCarrick - Keyboards

Infinity stretches unlimitlessly
Countless days pass by immeasurably
Anniversaries gutter in the maelstrom
Whirling a snowstorm of lustrous millennium

We couldn't stay together
This couldn't last forever

Senses dissolve into soliloquies
Flooding ascent in synchronicity
But we couldn't stay together
I knew this wouldn't last forever
Forever just one more tie then never
This is the last string to sever

On and on yes it goes on and on

I could stay wherever
I would last forever
Forever just one more tie then never
This is the last string to sever
Forever never forever
This is the last string to sever
I have lost you for ever and ever

Sioux - Lyrics
Sioux - Voice
Severin - Bass
Klein - Guitar
Budgie - Drums & Percussion
McCarrick - Keyboards & Cello

O pull on the rein and haul me in
Back to the start where eyes first blink to see
A flowing mane a cut-glass limb
And they're falling soaring so rhythmically

O pull on the rein and haul me in back to the start
Rebirthed in ecstasy with cherubim and seraphim
When I was falling soaring so rhythmically
Falling soaring falling for you so completely

The Rapture unfurling blues and greens
The Rapture a swirling violet stream
Mystic majestic entangled in a web of curling vapour thread
Encaptured by forces unseen
Enraptured an eclipse intoxicating
Strangely not inside strangely not outside
Drowning in the middle of an eerie transition
And I don't know your name
Never been alive yet I haven't died
I hover disembodied in a semi-wakened haze

Floating far above the cloud
Sinking far below the ground
Only my senses remain

The Rapture unfurling blues and greens
The Rapture a swirling violet stream
Mystic majestic entangled in a web of iridescent curling vapour thread
Floating far above the cloud
Sinking far below the ground
No form only my senses remain

Wondering if I dare to say your name
Wondrous thoughts embalmed avow you came
By the crescent disc rising amethyst
How can love remain the same unchanged?
Moonlight plays upon this sunken brow
Midnight ink bleeds wet mercurial clouds
By the crescent disc rising amethyst
Somnambulist unharnessed storms the plough
By the crescent disc rising amethyst
How can love remain the same unchained?

Sioux - Lyrics
Sioux - Voice
Severin - Bass
Klein - Guitar
Budgie - Drums & Percussion
McCarrick - Keyboards & Cello

At the top of the stairs is a locked room
My secret chamber that no outsider views
For entry is forbidden prohibited
Behind this door is my other self
Not a picture in a frame nor a fresh disguise
But my other self
Immobile inert and sanguine
My narcissus kisses exhale crimson breath
And pump ruby to the lip
I stand before myself not Jekyll or Hyde
Not sibling nor twin separated at birth
I stand before myself unaccountable

I dreamt that I had feet of clay
I dreamt I crossed the seven seas
And when I woke not knowing
I knew I led the double life

All I ever needed is twice removed
I spit my bile in an airless temper
In this vacuum a vampire reversed
This one who breathes life into me
And even dull mirrors reflect the tarnished twosome
I stand before myself not another one
Not Doppelganger nor witless clone
I stand before myself unrepentant

I dreamt of sin and aftermath
I dreamt of centuries laid bare
And when I woke not knowing
I knew I led the double life

Severin - Lyrics
Sioux - Voice
Severin - Bass
Klein - Guitar
Budgie - Drums & Percussion
McCarrick - Keyboards & Cello

I smash the glass into my face
Cutting through to my disgrace
Disregard for bone and flesh
How can I be in such a mesh of unlikeliness?
I smash my likeness
At my fingertips
With this blade turned in on me
Cutting an ancient tree
A cutter in a forest of industry
Upturning usurping
Love me hate me help me
Save me from me
Hold me hurt me stop me
Take this love out me
Anger tinged with sadness
It's always been like this
Place the dagger 'twixt my breast
My nearest and dearest
I hurt it I hurt me
Hurt everything around me
There's nothing no trace
Still cutting to find the place
Love out me! Love out me!
Anger tinged with sadness
It's always been like this
No nothing no one no more
No no no no I can't take this
Love me hate me help me
Save me from me
Hold me hurt me stop me
Take this love out me!
Love out me!
Love out me!

Sioux - Lyrics
Sioux - Voice
Severin - Bass
Klein - Guitar
Budgie - Drums & Percussion
McCarrick - Keyboards

It glittered and it gleamed
For the arriving beauty queen
A ring and a car
Now you're the prettiest by far

 No party she'd not attend
No invitation she wouldn't send
Transfixed by the inner sound
Of your promise to be found

Nothing or no one will ever make me let you down

Kiss them for me, I may be delayed
Kiss them for me,  if I am delayed

It's divoone, oh it's serene
In the fountains pink champagne
Someone carving their devotion
In the heart shaped pool of fame

Nothing or no one will ever make me let you down

Kiss them for me,  I may be delayed
Kiss them for me,  I may find myself delayed

On the road to New Orleans
A spray of stars hit the screen
As the 10th impact shimmered
The forbidden candles beamed

Kiss them for me,  I may be delayed
Kiss them for me,  I may find myself delayed
Kiss them for me,  Kiss them for me
Kiss them for me,  I may find myself delayed

Creeping up the backstairs
Slinking into dark stalls
Shapeless and slumped in bath chairs
Furtive eyes peep out of holes

She has many guises
She'll do what you want her to
Playing dead and sweet submission
Cracks the whip deadpan on cue

Peek-a-boo Peek-a-boo
Peek-a-boo Peek-a-boo

Reeking like a pigsty
Peeling back and gagging free
Flaccid ego in your hand
Chokes on dry tears, can you understand?

She's jeering at the shadows
Sneering behind a smile
Lunge and thrust to pout and pucker
Into the face of the beguiled

Peek-a-boo Peek-a-boo
Golly jeepers
Where'd you get those peepers?
Peepshow, creepshow
Where did you get those eyes?

Strobe lights pump and flicker
Dry lips crack out for more
`Come bite on this rag doll, baby!
That's right, now hit the floor'

They're sneaking out the back door
She gets up from all fours
Rhinestone fools and silver dollars
Curdle into bitter tears

Peek-a-boo Peek-a-boo
Golly jeepers
Where'd you get those peepers?
Peepshow, creepshow
Where did you get those eyes?

Water was running, children were running
You were running out of time
Under the mountain, a golden fountain
Were you praying at the Lare's shrine?

But oh your city lies in dust, my friend

We found you hiding we found you lying
Choking on the dirt and sand
Your former glories and all the stories
Dragged and washed with eager hands

But oh your city lies in dust, my friend

Hot and burning in your nostrils
Pouring down your gaping mouth
Your molten bodies blanket of cinders
Caught in the throes

But oh your city lies in dust, my friend

Sioux - Lyrics
Sioux - Voice
Severin - Bass & Keyboards
Budgie - Drums & Percussion
John Carruthers - Guitar & Keyboards

Dear Prudence, won't you come out to play
Dear Prudence, greet the brand new day
The sun is up, the sky is blue
It's beautiful and so are you
Dear Prudence won't you come out and play

Dear Prudence open up your eyes
Dear Prudence see the sunny skies
The wind is low the birds will sing
That you are part of everything
Dear Prudence won't you open up your eyes?

Look around round
Look around round round
Look around

Dear Prudence let me see you smile
Dear Prudence like a little child
The clouds will be a daisy chain
So let me see you smile again
Dear Prudence won't you let me see you smile?