No spark on ‘Tinderbox’

Press, 24 July 1986, Page 22

No spark on ‘Tinderbox’

SIOUXSIE AND THE BANSHEES ‘Tinderbox’ (Polydor 829-145-1).

Like the ghouls from “Return of the Living Dead,” Siouxsie Sioux and The Banshees refuse to retire gracefully. Ten years after Sioux established her punk credentials with a starring role in the notorius Bill Grundy-Sex Pistols television interview, she is still the model of icy new wave detachment.

But, musically, she and her band seem a long way from the early punk tenet of constant change. In fact, “Tinderbox,” the band’s seventh LP, is a blatant rehash of early Bansheeisms, most of which were none too exciting in the first place. A selected discography would probably include their jagged debut LP, “The Scream” (from whence sprang The Cocteau Twins, unfortunately), their essential singles collection “Once Upon A Time,” and 1983’s superior “A Kiss In The

Dreamhouse." That leaves a lot of filler, however, including the double-live LP “Nocturne,” which must rate as one of the biggest ever wastes of vinyl space.

“Tinderbox” is an LP littered with art school debris. Songs about the fall of Pompeii, or the perfect temperature to commit murder make good vehicles for the Banshees’ increasingly vacuous sense of drama.

Budgies leaden drums, and the usual one-note Steve Severin basslines, drag the songs down much as they did on the previous studio LP, “Hyaena”; only “Candyman,” and the U.K. single “Cities In Dust,” have any sort of accessibility.

Slouxsle’s vocals are as unflappable as usual, but, after virtually singing the same song for 10 years, she must be as tired of hearing them as we are. Lower “Tinderbox” into the ground, light the blue touch paper, and retire — please.

—TONY GREEN