Lunar Tunes
AS THEY LIKE IT: Someone said recently of Shakespear's Sister, "Siobhan is the brat and Marcy is the diva." Siobhan Fahey -- former Bananarama squad member -- and Marcella Detroit, who co-wrote the song "Lay Down Sally" immediately agree with the quip. "Yes, exactly", says Fahey. And it's true: Detroit is a gleaming column onstage, and Fahey seems to find a bed to jump on in every room.
Shakespear's Sister will admit to being named after a Smiths song, but they are leaving Virginia Woolf out of it for the moment. They do, however, write and play songs about "the disturbing undercurrent of womanhood" and tag Jane Eyre, plus madwomen locked in attics everywhere, as influences. Once, not long ago, sheer witchiness was on their minds, but now they walk the line between dark and light, balancing the extremes in what Fahey descibes as pop songs of "petulance, confusion, and joy." Their imminent second album, Hormonally Yours, gives us lyrics that recall the joy of smashing the crockery amid fluctuations of the biochemical barometer. Fahey and Detroit were pregnant in sync during the record's making, and, yes, it was a very hormonal time indeed. They accept that hormones do govern a womans' life -- Fahey just wishes the mood pendulum swung a little more slowly. But, seeing how the madwomen of Shakespear's Sister have beautiful kids and voices that soothe the spleen, life on the dark side of the moon must have its recompenses. Alison Powell Reprinted w/o permission.
