Siouxsie Sioux returns with 'Love Crime'

Siouxsie Sioux’s voice really isn’t like anyone else’s — a particularly gravelly contralto, she always sang songs that stretched the limit of her range, giving a sharp-edged and sometimes strained quality to songs such as “Peek-A-Boo,” “Christine,” “Kiss Them For Me” and “Cities In Dust,” all performed with the seminal English proto-goth rock band, Siouxsie and the Banshees. That’s not a dis — Sioux always used those moments of thinness to great effect, creating moments of brittle hollowness amid lush Gothic soundscapes.

Although her music has never really gone out of vogue, Sioux herself has been largely absent from the music scene for the past decade or so, so it was a surprise and a delight when she emerged with a new single: “Love Crime,” written with Brian Reitzell of Red Kross for the “Hannibal” series finale. But the song was more than just a well-placed act of nostalgia: It illustrates that not only have Sioux’s vocals changed since her heyday, they’ve markedly improved.

There’s a lushness to Sioux’s singing here that has appeared before, but has never felt quite so full. The wicked tinge that’s always marked her music is still present, both in the dark tone and in lyrics such as “a blood red setting sun/rushing through my veins/burning up my skin,” but what’s changed is the way she sounds comfortable in her lower range, how the notes curl and settle like fog.

This is a beautiful song and, as befits both her career and the show it was written for, a disturbing one. But if you’re a fan of the woman whose music lit a lot of the early flames of the English punk and Goth movements, it’s an absolute must, and a testament to a singer who somehow has managed to grow as an artist while so many of her contemporaries seem insistent on holding on to what they once were.

Email Victor D. Infante at Victor.Infante@Telegram.com and follow him on Twitter @ocvictor.