Siobhan Fahey should not be a pop star. Hell, she also shouldn’t be a rock star, song writer, trendsetter, or anything for that matter which is presented or sold to the public. On paper this makes good sense. Reedy, thin voice? Check. Songs full of bitterness and bile? Check. Prolific career? Not so much. Public Interest? Meh. Strong, hook laden, self penned songs? Sometimes. Yet for some reason, her personae endures…
In fact, the thing about Siobhan is how much she gets right when nothing, no, NOTHING, in her post-banana-fana-fo-fana career has come across as easy. Shakespears Sister started off with a thud of an album, Sacred Heart, yet radio managed to pull from it hit singles Heroine and You’re History. Their sophomore album, Hormonally Yours, launched the band into the stratosphere (including America) with hit single Stay. And while the song (and album) holds up well 17 years later, how many people know what she’s been up to lately?
For a while she was hocking songs on the internet. Then the third album from 1997 which never surfaced, surfaced almost ten years later. It was interesting, but not necessarily good. It had a point, but a decade later it wasn’t as vital as it could have been had it dropped immediately after Siobhan decided to hand her other bandmate, Marcella Detroit, her walking papers. Obviously, the music suffered, since one of the more interesting characteristics of Shakespears Sister’s vocals was always the hi/low vocal harmonies. Without Marcy to lift the songs, the darkness of Siobhan’s voice and subject matter created something of a downer.
And don’t even get me started on the website. www.Siobhanfahey.com, while beautifully executed, was too much to deal with to try and obtain Siobhan’s songs. There was a subscription service, then it disappeared, then there was an online store…at this point, she was going solo, and a radical shift in music followed, in which Siobhan re-cast herself as the older, jaded sister to Kylie. Bitter Pill in it’s original form was a wonderful contrast to Kylie’s Can’t Get you Out of my Head. Several other electro ditties were released and well received. Which is why Shakespears Sister’s new CD, Songs From the Red Room is such a WTF musical moment.
Most of the songs have presented themselves over the last 6 years in different incarnations. And to scrub off all of their electro sheen and release them under a different name, makes me think that Siobhan doesn’t really have her head in the game. In fact, many fans may feel jipped to have to pay money to obtain old new songs and to have them in cd quality with a booklet. And at this point, let’s just say that ardent fans are pretty much all Siobhan has. However, delve into the disc, and there’s talent here. There’s good good stuff. Pulsatron will never go out of style…even if the guitars have been amped up. How can anyone deny a song with such a rollicking beat that involves a trip to the sex boutique? A cover of Hot Room is a difficult listen, yet worth the effort as it pays off with repeated listens. The pulsating beat and synth strings pull the whole thing together and harken back to some of Shakespears Sister’s strongest work. Current single It’s a Trip has a great I Feel Love underground Disco pulse to it, and is the most toe tappingly accessible song on the collection. It should also be noted that itunes bonus track Someone Elses Girl is a highlight and should be sought out.
Bitter Pill, however, is a ginormous disappointment compared to the original version. The new arrangement, which is all fuzzy guitars, doesn’t really suit the lyrics. And having lived with the electro perfection of the original for a long long time, it’s a low point on the disc. This song was not meant to rock; it was meant to dance…Elsewhere a duet with Terry Hall proves to be filler and You’re Not Yourself doesn’t really go anywhere.
Sifting through this collection, as good as it is, I really wish there was a way to make it better. The vocals are competent, and confidant. Siobhan’s got nothing to prove, and the best songs here sound as vital amidst today’s pop music as they did five years ago. The bitterness in her delivery has diminished, making her sound less detached and otherworldly and there’s even a hint of vulnerability (see A Loaded Gun). Here’s hoping the next CD, whether released as a solo artist, Shakespears Sister, or some mail-order internet subscription based thing, takes Siobhan’s music back to where it succeeded the most: the dancefloor. And let’s also hope that Siobhan’s fans aren’t ten years older when it happens.
