Mantaray marks a departure for the artist formerly known as Siouxsie Sioux. For a start, it’s her first solo album in a career spanning 30 years. What’s more, her musical and, until recently, life partner Peter ‘Budgie’ Clark is conspicuous by his absence.

Budgie was the drummer in Siouxsie and the Banshees and also in the Creatures side project. However the couple have since divorced. And Siouxsie has not only washed him right out of her hair, but largely eradicated any trace of their musical union too.

Siouxsie’s always been a diva, but never before has she sounded more like Shirley Bassey than on ‘Here Comes That Day’. ‘If It Doesn’t Kill You’, meanwhile resembles Portishead minus the electronica and no, I don’t mean Beth Gibbens and her collaboration with Rustin Man.

Elsewhere ‘Sea of Tranquility’ betrays the fact producer Charlie Jones has previously worked with Goldfrapp whilst ‘One Mile Below’ finds Siouxsie aping Bat for Lashes, an artist so obviously influenced by her own back catalogue.

(3¾/5)