The Rapture (album)

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The Rapture
Siouxsie & the Banshees-The Rapture.jpg
Studio album by
Siouxsie and the Banshees
Released16 January 1995
14 February 1995 (US)[1]
Recorded1993–1994
StudioStudio du Manoir (Léon, France) and Wessex (London)
GenreAlternative rock, pop rock, art rock
Length54:13
Label
Producer
Siouxsie and the Banshees chronology
Superstition
(1991) 		The Rapture
(1995) 		Downside Up
(2004)
Siouxsie Sioux chronology
Superstition
Siouxsie and the Banshees
(1991) 		The Rapture
(1995) 		Anima Animus
The Creatures
(1999)
Singles from The Rapture
  1. "O Baby"
    Released: 28 December 1994
  2. "Stargazer"
    Released: 6 February 1995

The Rapture is the 11th and final studio album by English alternative rock band Siouxsie and the Banshees. The songs with cello arrangements, including the title track as well as "Fall from Grace" and "Not Forgotten", were produced by the band on their own in 1993. John Cale later produced the remaining songs in mid-1994.

Recording and release[]

After composing songs in Siouxsie and Budgie's house near Toulouse, France, in March and April 1993, the band went to Léon near Biarritz. They produced the first part of the album at Studio du Manoir in May. At the beginning of 1994, they recorded the final songs in London, this time with producer and former Velvet Underground member John Cale, who had previously produced albums that the band liked such as Patti Smith's Horses and the first Modern Lovers album. Cale also mixed one track, "Fall from Grace", from the previous recording session.

In the UK, Polydor only released the album on both CD and cassette, whereas in the US, Geffen also released it on vinyl LP.

This album was remastered for CD in 2014 with three bonus tracks, including a previously unreleased song called "FGM", and "New Skin", a song recorded for the Showgirls soundtrack of the Paul Verhoeven film of the same name.[2] "New Skin" has got a different mix and is longer than on the original Showgirls album. From then and on all further reissues, "Stargazer" has got a different mix: the Mark Saunders mix was included instead of the original mix initially made by the band.

A double vinyl reissue of the album, remastered from the original ¼” tapes and cut half-speed at Abbey Road Studios by Miles Showell, was released in December 2018.[3]

Critical reception[]

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic4/5 stars[4]
Select4/5[5]
Vox7/10[6]

Melody Maker wrote: "The Rapture is a fascinating, transcontinental journey through danger and exotica". Describing the arrangements, they added, "it's a vivid cornucopia of lush instrumentation, mandolins vying with cellos and bells, sweeping strings describing starlit oceans and sirens calling from jagged rocks, and attics that hide secret worlds".[7] Steve Malins of Vox also liked the album. He said, "The title-track is a sublime melodrama recalling the experimentation of Peepshow and 1982's Kiss in the Dreamhouse", before concluding with this sentence, "The Rapture represents an intelligent twist on familiar Banshees obsessions".[6] Liz Buckley of Sun Zoom Spark also praised it, writing, "How is a band that first formed almost two decades ago able to remain both vital and celebrated? Answer: Metamorphosis". Buckley also declared that "the album is able to excite the hairs on the back of your neck".[8] Select gave it a rating of 4 out of 5, hailing the band as "purveyors of scary pop par excellence". Matt Hall noted the ability of the group for "trotting out jolly tunes about mental breakdown, love bordering on obsession and severely dislocated relationships." The reviewer characterised The Rapture as a "fine little Russian doll of a record", and said, "Under the keyboard lines, swelling strings and OTT percussion, at the centre of every song is a nugget of disquiet that keeps you listening again and again."[5]

Writing in the 2004 edition of The Rolling Stone Album Guide, Mark Coleman and Mac Randall described The Rapture as "a lackluster affair".[9]

Andrew Weatherall included the track "The Double Life" in a two-hour mix he did and presented for BBC radio 6 in April 2011.[10]

Track listing[]

All tracks produced by Siouxsie and the Banshees except tracks 1-2 and 7-8-9 produced by John Cale. Track 4 produced by Siouxsie and the Banshees and mixed by John Cale.

All music composed by Siouxsie and the Banshees, except bonus tracks "FGM" by Siouxsie/Jon Klein and "New Skin" by Siouxsie.

All lyrics are written by Siouxsie Sioux, except where noted.

No.TitleLyricsLength
1."O Baby" 3:19
2."Tearing Apart" 3:21
3."Stargazer" 3:14
4."Fall from Grace"Severin3:43
5."Not Forgotten" 4:44
6."Sick Child"Budgie4:49
7."The Lonely One" 3:29
8."Falling Down" 2:53
9."Forever" 4:04
10."The Rapture" 11:30
11."The Double Life"Severin4:10
12."Love Out Me" 4:43
2014 CD remastered reissue bonus tracks
No.TitleLength
13."O Baby" (Manhattan mix)3:27
14."FGM" (Unreleased demo)3:05
15."New Skin" (Unreleased Showgirls long version)8:06

Personnel[]

Additional personnel

Charts[]

Album

Chart Position
UK Albums Chart 33
US Billboard 200[11] 127

References[]

  1. ^ Sprague, David (7 January 1995). Siouxsie Sioux Trades... Billboard. p. 13.
  2. ^ "Siouxsie and the Banshees relaunch archival campaign, new reissues due out in October". Consequenceofsound. 22 August 2014. Retrieved 1 September 2014.
  3. ^ "The Rapture 2018 black Vinyl Siouxsie and the Banshees". Whatrecords.co.uk. Retrieved 23 October 2020.
    "The Rapture [US release] 2018 black LP vinyl Siouxsie and the Banshees". Amazon.com. Retrieved 23 October 2020.
    "The Rapture 2018 black LP vinyl Siouxsie and the Banshees". Amazon.fr. Retrieved 23 October 2020.
    "The Rapture double LP black vinyl Siouxsie and the Banshees". Roughtrade.com. Retrieved 23 October 2020.
    "The Rapture double LP black vinyl Siouxsie and the Banshees". udiscovermusic.com. Retrieved 23 October 2020.
    "The Rapture double LP black vinyl Siouxsie and the Banshees". Thesoundofvinyl.com. Retrieved 23 October 2020.
  4. ^ Ogg, Alex. "The Rapture - Siouxsie and the Banshees". AllMusic. Retrieved 3 December 2016.
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b Hall, Matt. "Siouxsie and the Banshees The Rapture - review". Select. February 1995.
  6. ^ Jump up to: a b Malins, Steve. The Rapture review. Vox. February 1995
  7. ^ Unsworth, Cathi. "Baby, Come back". Melody Maker. 14 January 1995.
  8. ^ Buckley, Liz. "Siouxsie and the banshees". Sun Zoom Spark. January 1995
  9. ^ Coleman, Mark; Randall, Mac (2004). "Siouxsie and the Banshees". In Brackett, Nathan; with Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide. New York: Simon & Schuster. pp. 740–41. ISBN 978-0-7432-0169-8.
  10. ^ "Andrew Weatherall BBC radio 6 Mix 17 April 2011". BBC Radio on Youtube. Retrieved 2 December 2020.
  11. ^ "Billboard 200 for Week Ending March 4, 1995". Billboard. 4 March 1995. p. 95. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
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