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Peek-a-Boo (song)

"Peek-a-Boo"
Siouxsie Peekaboo.jpg
Single by Siouxsie and the Banshees
from the album Peepshow
B-side "False Face", "Catwalk"
Released 18 July 1988
Format
Recorded 1988
Genre Dance rock, alternative rock
Length 3:10
Label
Writer(s)
Producer(s) Siouxsie and the Banshees / Mike Hedges
Siouxsie and the Banshees singles chronology
"Song from the Edge of the World"
(1987)
"Peek-a-Boo"
(1988)
"The Killing Jar"
(1988)

"Peek-a-Boo" is a song by English alternative rock band Siouxsie and the Banshees. It was released in 1988 as the first single from the band's ninth studio album, Peepshow. Melody Maker described the song as "a brightly unexpected mixture of black steel and pop disturbance" and qualified its genre as "thirties hip hop". "Peek-a-Boo" was rated "Single of the Week" in both Sounds and NME. Sounds wrote that it was a "brave move", "playful and mysterious".NME described it as "Oriental marching band hip hop" with "catchy accordion." They then said : "If this nation was served by anything approaching a decent pop radio station, "Peek A Boo" would be a huge hit."

PopMatters retrospectively placed it at number 18 on their list "The 100 Greatest Alternative Singles of the '80s", saying that its instrumentation was "inventive" with "ingenious vocal phasing".

Bloc Party praised "Peek-a-Boo" and their singer Kele Okereke said: "It sounded like nothing else on this planet. This is just a pop song that they put out in the middle of their career that nobody knows about, but to me it sounded like the most current but most futuristic bit of guitar-pop music I've heard."

The song's peculiar sound is due to its experimental recording which was based on a sample. The song was built on a loop in reverse of a brass part with drums which the group previously arranged a year before for a cover of John Cale's "Gun". The band selected different parts of that tape when played backwards, editing them and re-recording on top of it, adding a different melody plus accordion, a one-note bass and discordant guitar. Drummer Budgie also added another beat. Once the instrumental parts were finished, Siouxsie sang her lyrics over it. The lyric track was further manipulated by Siouxsie's use of a different microphone for each line of the song. It took the band a year to arrive at this result. When initially composed to be an extra track for 1987's "The Passenger" single, the band realized that the song was too good to be relegated to B-side status and deserved better exposure.


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Wikipedia

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