Through The Looking Glassby Siouxsie And The Banshees

Covers albums are usually dismal affairs, far more miss than hit. Through the Looking Glass distinguishes itself by being a bona fide work of art. Though it was subject to middling reviews by critics on its release, many of the artists covered - be it Iggy Pop or Kraftwerk - were astonished by what the Banshees accomplished. The Banshees avoid the cardinal sin of creating carbon copies of the originals, but their versions nevertheless preserve the kernel of what made the songs so striking in the first place. By this time, Siouxsie Sioux, who mainly shrieked through the Banshees' first album, had also transformed herself into a singer of the highest caliber, using her voice as a full fledged instrument, whether seductively twisting Trust in Me, from the Jungle Book, into a song of dark enchantment, or gleefully gliding through Iggy Pop's The Passenger like a tipsy party goer. Easily, the ballsiest move is taking on Billie Holiday's signature song, Strange Fruit, and somehow making it more haunted and horrific. The band also deserves praise for how it combines inventiveness with restraint. It's interesting how cleverly they truncated a lot of the longer originals into shorter, more potent versions.