There's never been anything understated in Siouxsie Sioux's approach, from her physically and vocally imperious demeanor to her taste for crushing grooves and slash-and-burn guitars.  That's all in full display on her first official solo album,Mantaray.  In lieu of the Banshees, Siouxsie teams up with Steve Evans and Charlie Jones.  They not only produced the album, but co-wrote most of the tunes and play most of the bass, guitar, and keyboards.  They understand Siouxsie's iconographic terrain and do little to deviate from it, but they also make it sound like an album made today and not in 1978. Lyrically, Siouxsie has shed her often macabre, gothic horrorshow imagery in favor of a more personal, if not more intimate vision. "The Swan" is a song of empowerment and change, backed by a grinding rhythm track and wall-of-sound interludes.  She indulges her penchant for jazz, recalling New Orleans with the fudgie horn section of "Here Comes the Day," while "If It Doesn't Kill You" recalls her cover of "Strange Fruit," nodding to Billie Holiday as it hovers between ballad, Broadway, and heavy metal. "Loveless" may be her response to the demise of her marriage to Banshee and Creatures drummer Budgie.  It's a brutalizing piece with electronic rhythms and searing, feedback guitar leads that are incongruously countered by a cyclical marimba line. Nearly thirty years after her debut with the Banshees, Siouxsie can still sneer and storm as fiercely as ever.  Sometimes she overdoes the vocal mannerisms with the slightly flat tone, snarls, yelps, bends, and drawls that have become embedded in her style over the years.  Even when she's singing a tender song, Siouxsie sounds like she might just slap you across the face.--John Diliberto