Mantaray

What happened to Siouxsie Sioux? The Viking warrior woman of punk rock. The woman who wore fetish gear with the same shrug and indifference that most people wear jeans and a t-shirt. On her first solo album, Mantaray, she reveals herself to really be an off-kilter pop diva. Huh? If it wasn't for the poor studio musicians and dated arrangements this album might have been really something.

The thunderous intro of "Into a Swan," the first song and the best, would lead the listener into believing that age has not calmed her, and that she is going to prove that she is love child of Nico and Shirley Bassey. The industrial dirge, where the Stooges and Trent Reznor bump uglies, combines beautifully with Siouxsie's one-of-a-kind voice. She frequently sounds like the mad banshee of the band that brought her to fame. Her upper register is gone, but that low growl and ferocity remain. It is an impressive start, but sadly the only true time that everything comes together so perfectly.

The other tracks come very close to matching it, such as "Loveless," but it's the strings-laden ballads that bog down the album. "Heaven and Alchemy" is a great song title with some wince-inducing lyrics. It's too sappy for Siouxsie to truly nail. She might be aiming for confessionals on some of these tracks, but Siouxsie is always at her best when she's dressing herself up in outlandish story lines and characters within her songs.

The energy and fire is there, but the Siouxsie that is present needed a stronger band behind her. She also needed someone to tell her that an overly glossy Next Top Model-esque cover isn't the best choice for your debut album as a solo singer. I find Mantaray mostly frustrating for what it could have been. I blame that opening salvo.

DOWNLOAD: "Into a Swan"