‘Desert Kisses’: The most underrated track from Siouxsie and the Banshees
The dawn of the 1980s was a turning point for the whole of society at large, not to mention the musical realm. Gone were the days of the screaming punks of the previous decade, and heralding in was the slicker and infinitely more glittering sonic surf of the new waves, set to ride high at the top of the charts. This was quite the changing of the guards, but if there was anyone who was going to anticipate and capitalise upon the move before it happened, it was Siouxsie and the Banshees.
Having formed into an outfit just as punk rock was coming to the fore in the mid-1970s, Sioux and Co. were hugely inspired by the then unsigned and burgeoning band The Sex Pistols, whom the Banshees not only shortly afterwards became strong sonic contemporaries of but also modelled their sound massively on. Thus, with an emerging scene blazing at their backs, Siouxsie and the Banshees rode into battle determined to shake up the status quo.
They managed for the first few years, constituting the remaining twilight period of the ‘70s, but as the new decade rolled around and fresh sonic tides came to the shore, they were smart enough to realise that the ruse of rebellion wasn’t going to last forever. Subsequently, their 1980 album Kaleidoscope can retrospectively be considered a transitional piece, slowly morphing away from all-out goth and into a smoother and more palatable mainstream chart sound.
This is exactly the reason why the song ‘Desert Kisses’, taken from that record, warrants the full deserved status of being one of the most underrated tracks in all of the Siouxsie and the Banshees songbook, as it is the precise epitome of the sonic freshness that always kept the band a step ahead of the game.
It has to be said that ‘Desert Kisses’ isn’t suddenly a complete reincarnation into shiny pop – nothing Siouxsie and the Banshees produced ever was – but the point is that it represents perfectly the new journey of fresh sonic explorations the bad were set to go on, while still remaining in keeping with their quintessential style. A melodic ballad effort is seamlessly married up with classically disturbing gothic lyrics such as “The cancer crab is on us all,” to the point of the effect being that you almost don’t notice that this is the band beginning to say goodbye to their brutish days of punk.
Subsequently fulfilling a space more softly moody and atmospheric than ever before, ‘Desert Kisses’ demonstrates Siouxsie and the Banshees’ ultimate versatility in effortlessly moving with the time and remaining as relevant as ever, even when a seemingly slower pace of musical life came calling. The song may have blended into the background of the Kaleidoscope they created to display this, but it nonetheless stands as one of their most underrated tunes for heralding their new era.
That time in their tenure and subsequent album represented a lot of change for Siouxsie and the Banshees, and not just on a sonic scale. Between a changing lineup, new relationships, and fresh sonic horizons, there was a lot that could have threatened to tear them apart. But it was a testament to their genius that the band just took it all in their stride – because when life threw them lemons, they created a Kaleidoscope instead.
