Hear Siouxsie Sioux’s Haunting ‘Hannibal’ Finale Song, ‘Love Crime’

by Daniel Kreps

Siouxsie Sioux ended an eight-year songwriting hiatus Saturday night when she contributed a new track titled “Love Crime” to the series finale of Hannibal. The Siouxsie and the Banshees singer’s haunting, strings-laden track was spearheaded by the serial killer show’s music supervisor Brian Reitzell, who spoke to Entertainment Weekly (via Pitchfork) about how he coaxed Sioux to record the track despite the singer stating she hadn’t written a song or entered the studio in nearly a decade.

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Reitzell, who previously worked with Sioux on the 2006 film Marie Antoinette, discovered that she was an admirer of Hannibal. The feeling was mutual, as showrunner Bryan Fuller was an enormous Siouxsie and the Banshees fan. “Siouxsie asked [Fuller] for something. What she said is, ‘What is this season about? If you could put it into a sentence, what is this season about?’ And he said that it was a love story,” Reitzell told EW. “She wrote those lyrics without seeing any picture, just because she was a fan of the show. Luckily, it worked absolutely perfectly.”

Siouxsie Sioux in the 1980s (photo: Michael Putland/Getty Images)

Sioux’s first – and to this point, only – solo LP Mantaray arrived in 2007. Since then, the singer said she hasn’t felt the urge to work on new music. “Siouxsie hasn’t even stepped foot in a studio for eight years, and she said that this piece was the first thing that she heard that inspired her to do anything,” Reitzell said. “And the good news is that I’m going to do a few more tracks with her. I’ve written a few more, and we’re not sure how we’re going to release the track, and that’s kind of unfortunate, but it will be out.”

Reitzell has an impressive track record of shaking long-hibernating artists out of their slumber: He previously convinced My Bloody Valentine’s Kevin Shields to provide music for Lost in Translation before that band returned with their 2013 LP mbv. Even more surprising, Reitzell somehow persuaded Talk Talk’s Mark Hollis, who all but retired from the music industry following the release of his 1998 self-titled solo album, to lay down some instrumental tracks for the TV show Boss.

In an interview with TV Guide, Fuller reveals that Hannibal’s broadcasters – NBC in the U.S., Sky in the U.K. – split the bill to record the Sioux track, even though they already announced that the gory drama would not be renewed. “'I know the show is canceled… and it’s absolutely unheard of for a showrunner to come back to you and ask for more money for a show that has no further revenue potential for you,’” Fuller told the networks. “'But it’s Siouxsie Sioux and it’s an honor and it’s her first single in eight years.’ They both said, 'Yes, absolutely, we’ll split it right down the middle, and we’re doing this because we love you, we love the show, and we love Siouxsie.’”

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