Siouxsie And The Banshees - Downside Up (3 CD) (Remastered 2025)

A formidable body of work, this alternative history of the band that epitomised the post-punk movement of the late '70s and the goth scene of the '80s remains as audacious and uncompromising as any of the musical journeys undertaken by their contemporaries and has been remastered from the original tape sources and cut to lacquer by Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios. The design is very much based on the original release; the booklets (64 pages for CD, 32 for the vinyl box) feature an introduction by Siouxsie, song lyrics and additional imagery drawn from their single sleeve artwork. Beautifully illustrating the stylistic evolution of their sound, Downside Up provides copious glimpses of dark humour through an impregnable facade of cool as Siouxsie and company pioneered an aesthetic full of daring experimentation that is at once as influential as it is (still, somehow) underrated. As Rock Sound put it on its original release: "Whilst most bands regard the B-side as an irrelevancy, adumping ground for throwaway tracks not deemed good enough for proper release, Siouxsie And The Banshees always treated it with respect, an excuse to have fun and experiment. Consequently [the] results were often more interesting than their flipside counterparts. So you get the splendidly poisonous 'Drop Dead/Celebration', the sensual menace of 'Tattoo', some inspired covers (Ben E. King's 'Supernatural Thing', '20th Century Boy' by T-Rex) and the rousing 'Something Wicked (This Way Comes)'.