Ah, Siouxsie Sioux. Idolised by many, and surely one of the most influential British singers in history with her unique style and mesmerising performances.

Mantaray, released last month, is Siouxsie Sioux's first solo album and seems to have come at a momentous time in her life - she just turned fifty, and recently announced a split with long-term husband Budgie (from the Banshees).
 
So what kind of album has she come up with? My overall impressions are that, firstly, her voice is notably deeper than the Siouxsie of old, and though she may shy away from the higher register now, she's lost nothing of her ability to prowl menacingly all over a song in true Siouxsie style.

Musically, there's quite a mixture here - electro-industrial grind, rock guitars, orchestration, Latin percussion, soulful piano. Lyrically, my feeling is that the 10 songs on the album are heavily themed on the recent events in her life and are arranged in such a way as to take the listener through the whole experience.
 
The first two tracks are both high-energy and provide a stunning introduction. Track one, "Into a Swan", is a pulsating PJ Harvey-like grind. As the title suggests, it's themed on an awakening: 'I feel a force I've never felt before' and unsurprisingly, was released as the first single from the album.
 
Equally infectious is the superb guitar-driven rock-riffery of "About to Happen". This song suggests calm-before-the-storm - and the storm seems to happen in track three, "Here Comes that Day" which, while sounding almost like a Bond movie theme, is quite a vicious put-down of some unfortunate individual: 'There's a price to pay for a life of insincerity'.
 
That leads on the anecdotal brilliance of "Loveless", a sad, but very catchy song about how Siouxsie used to be ('fearless, fearless') and how she is now ('loveless, loveless').
 
Then comes a quite mournful ballad - "If it Doesn't Kill You" - which at least offers some hope for her future. The up-beat "One Mile Below" follows, and Siouxsie ponders just how low she can go but urges herself back up.
 
Track nine, "They Follow You", is about how it can be difficult to shake off your past, then the album finishes with "Heaven and Alchemy", a song about the idealistic, romantic notion of relationships.
 
With her anecdotal, plain-speaking lyrics and her inimitable ice-cool style, Siouxsie delivers hook after hook and really tells us how it is.

Buy Mantaray from Amazon.co.uk.