Kaleidoscope was the first Siouxsie and the Banshees album I ever bought, and (possibly because of this) it’s also my favourite. It has this certain feel to it that I really love, sort of like the French Coldwave soundtrack to a fictional English TV series; a serious sitcom, perhaps.
The name Kaleidoscope is certainly appropriate. It’s very colourful, but at the same time there are many shades of grey to it. It makes me think of a group of people sitting in a strange little room on a rainy day, blowing balloons, while outside, a curious youth peers in at them through a tiny window. There’s such a sense of variety to this album that it’s difficult to get bored of listening to it, and it has this element of the fantastical about it. At the same time, though, it’s still connected to the everyday, with only two songs (Lunar Camel and Desert Kisses) really having a sort of far-away, exotic feel to them.
Actually, many of the songs could be seen as describing what’s going on inside of just one, normal-looking house. There’s Happy House, Tenant, Trophy and Clockface, for instance, while one of the bonus tracks on the copy I own is this little instrumental bit called Sitting Room. Others (such as the stylish Red Light, or the creepy Skin) may not take place inside of the house, maybe, but they do seem like they could be close enough to it.
