180g PRESSING OF SIOUXSIE AND THE BANSHEES’ DEBUT ALBUM! The Scream was recorded quickly and efficiently but has since become regarded as a landmark post-punk album and a cornerstone of early goth. The sleeve is uncharacteristically vivid and colorful...  A little more about the album cover, cuz that’s why you’re here, right? Photographer Paul Wakefield executed the photoshoot, but the idea was all Siouxsie’s. "The idea was to shoot disquieting and unnerving images underwater in a swimming pool – you can’t scream underwater. I wanted to be able to completely control the lighting, and so an indoor pool was the only option. I scouted quite a few pools, but when I saw this pool in the YMCA in Central London, which was dark blue tiled with light blue lane stripes instead of the normal reverse colors, I knew it was the ideal location. I wanted to give it an eerie underwater night-time feel, and this setting was perfect. I used school kids as models and they pretty well ran riot.” For the uninitiated, check out “Mirage,” “Jigsaw Feeling,” “Nicotine Stain” and the Beatles cover “Helter Skelter.”

• 180g vinyl pressing
• mastered and cut half-speed at Abbey Road Studios, London
• music label: Polydor 1978 / 2018

reviewed by frau farbissina 01/2018