Playground Twist

"Playground Twist" is a song by English post-punk band Siouxsie and the Banshees. It was released in 1979 by record Polydor as the sole single from the band's second album, Join Hands (1979).

Production

The track was produced by the band's manager Nils Stevenson and Mike Stavrou, a recording engineer on T. Rex's final album, Dandy in the Underworld (1977).

Content

"Playground Twist" features a 3/4 time signature, which is unusual for rock music. The pacing of the song gives it a childlike (i.e. "playground") feel (along with references to childhood nursery rhymes), although the lyrics provide a much more sinister picture.

Critical reception

NME's Roy Carr hailed the single and wrote: "If Ingmar Bergman produced records, they might sound like this. The listener is immediately engulfed in a maelstrom of whirling sound punctuated by the ominous tolling of church bells, phased guitars, thundering percussion, a surreal alto sax and the wail of Siouxsie's voice. It demands to be played repeatedly at the threshold-of-pain volume to elicit its full nightmarish quality".