Feast (The Creatures album)
| Feast | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | |||||
| Studio album by The Creatures | |||||
| Released | 15 May 1983 | ||||
| Recorded | January 1983 | ||||
| Studio | Hawaii | ||||
| Genre | Alternative music, exotica | ||||
| Label | Polydor | ||||
| Producer | Mike Hedges, The Creatures | ||||
| The Creatures chronology | |||||
| |||||
| Siouxsie Sioux chronology | |||||
|
|||||
| Singles from Feast | |||||
|
|||||
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   [1] |
| Record Mirror | [2] |
Feast is the debut album by British duo the Creatures (comprised by Siouxsie Sioux and musician Budgie, then-members of the band Siouxsie and the Banshees). It reached No. 17 in the UK Albums Chart and the "Miss the Girl" single peaked at No. 21. With their first album, the band embraced exotica, including "waves crashing on beaches", "found-sound effects from nature" and local Hawaiian chanters.[1] Critic Ned Raggett described it as "a lush, tropical experience".[1]
Feast was released in May 1983, two years after the Wild Things EP. It was entirely remastered in 1997 and reissued as part of the A Bestiary Of compilation.
Recording and music
Siouxsie and Budgie decided where to record the album by randomly placing a pin on a map of the world; the result was the U.S. state of Hawaii. Several songs are about their experiences in that region, including "Festival of Colours" and "A Strutting Rooster".
The song title "Inoaʻole" is Hawaiian for "no name". "Ice House" was inspired by an obscure television play, while single "Miss the Girl" was inspired by the J. G. Ballard novel Crash. "Dancing on Glass" was based on an Indian musical; during the studio session, the sounds of broken glass were created by Siouxsie and Budgie dancing on broken mirrors while wearing tough shoes.
Critical reception
Feast was released to critical acclaim. Paul Prayag of Record Mirror praised the album, awarding it a score of 4 out of 5 and writing: "Siouxsie and Budgie are wondering deeper and deeper into a jungle that looks like having no easily definable boundaries".[2] Melody Maker described Feast as "an album of filtered brilliance, fertile, sensual and erotic; an album that, in its desperate naivety, attempts to articulate that moment when the monsoon ends, when the smell and the heat conspire in a perfumed mist and life sprouts instantly, green and luxurious".[3] NME also hailed it: "The Creatures have assembled a multifarious sonic boom that is as various and kaleidoscopic as can be imagined. The humours of Sioux's frosty larynx are nakedly outlined against skins of sometimes fabulous quality. The drum sound on 'Ice House' must be one of the greatest on record".[4]
Track listing
All tracks written by Siouxsie and Budgie.
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Morning Dawning" | 4:02 |
| 2. | "Inoaʻole" | 3:49 |
| 3. | "Ice House" | 2:46 |
| 4. | "Dancing on Glass" | 2:16 |
| 5. | "Gecko" | 3:50 |
| 6. | "Sky Train" | 3:15 |
| 7. | "Festival of Colours" | 3:33 |
| 8. | "Miss the Girl" | 2:35 |
| 9. | "A Strutting Rooster" | 5:04 |
| 10. | "Flesh" | 4:26 |