Siouxsie And The Banshees [Album Covers]

Music Album Details Page Bottom Next Previous Random

Album Covers : Siouxsie and the Banshees 25 Albums

Spotify:S Review:R Click an Album for Details Columns:

Wikipedia Spotify Allmusic Official Homepage Itunes Facebook Youtube

$[ 1 / 25 ] 1978 The Scream After building up an intense live reputation and a rabid fan base, Siouxsie and the Banshees almost had to debut with a stunner -- which they did, "Hong Kong Garden" taking care of things on the singles front and The Scream on the full-length. Matched with a downright creepy cover and a fair enough early producing effort from Steve Lillywhite -- well before he found gated drum sounds -- its a fine balance of the early bands talents. Siouxsie Sioux herself shows the distinct, commanding voice and lyrical meditations on fractured lives and situations that would win her well-deserved attention over the years. Compared to the unfocused general subject matter of most of the bands peers, songs like "Jigsaw Feeling," "Suburban Relapse," and especially the barbed contempt of "Mirage" are perfect miniature portraits. John McKays metallic (but not metal) guitar parts, riffs that never quite resolve into conventional melodies, and the throbbing Steven Severin/Kenny Morris rhythm section distill the Velvet Undergrounds early propulsion into a crisper punch with more than a hint of glams tribal rumble. The sheer variety on the album alone is impressive -- "Overground" and its slow-rising build, carefully emphasizing space in between McKays notes as much as the notes themselves, the death-march Teutonic stomp of "Metal Postcard," the sudden near-sunniness of the music (down to the handclaps!) toward the end of "Carcass." The cover of "Helter Skelter" makes for an unexpected nod to the past -- if its not as completely overdriven as the original, Siouxsie puts her own definite stamp on it and its sudden conclusion is a great moment of drama. Its the concluding "Switch" that fully demonstrates just how solid the band was then, with McKays saxophone adding just enough of a droning wild card to the multi-part theatricality of the piece, Siouxsie in particularly fine voice on top of it all.$ 1978 The Scream SR	1979 Join Hands SR	1980 Kaleidoscope SR	1981 Once Upon a Time: The Singles R
$[ 5 / 25 ] 1981 Juju One of the bands masterworks, Juju sees Siouxsie and the Banshees operating in a squalid wall of sound dominated by tribal drums, swirling and piercing guitars, and Siouxsie Siouxs fractured art-attack vocals. If not for John McGeochs marvelous high-pitched guitars, here as reminiscent of Joy Division as his own work in Magazine, the album would rank as the bands most gothic release. Siouxsie and company took things to an entirely new level of darkness on Juju, with the singer taking delight in sinister wordplay on the disturbing "Head Cut," creeping out listeners in the somewhat tongue-in-cheek "Halloween," and inspiring her bandmates to push their rhythmic witches brew to poisonous levels of toxicity. Album opener "Spellbound," one of the bands classics, ranks among their finest moments and bristles with storming energy. Siouxsies mysterious voice emerges from dense guitar picking, Budgie lays into his drums as if calling soldiers to war, and things get more tense from there. "Into the Light" is perhaps the only track where a listener gets a breath of oxygen, as the remainder of the album screams claustrophobia, whether by creepy carnival waterfalls of guitar notes or Siouxsies unsettling lyrics. "Arabian Nights" at least offers a gorgeously melodic chorus, but after that the band performs a symphony of bizarre wailings and freaky imagery. As ominous as the cacophony is on its own, close attention to Siouxsies nearly subliminal chants paints a scarier picture. A passage such as "I saw you...a huge smiling central face with eyes and lips cut out but smiling and eating lots of other lips" doesnt exactly brighten ones day. Siouxsie is full of such quips throughout the albums running time, but her delivery packs as much punk as her message. Her attack-the-world dynamic range on "Voodoo Dolly" predates and out-weirds Björks similar styling years later. McGeoch, Budgie, and bassist Steven Severin deserve just as much credit for crafting an original sound that would inspire a diverse group of future bands from Ministry to Placebo. All the while, producer Nigel Gray maintains the sense that the album is an immediate, edgy performance unfolding right in front of the listener. The upfront intensity of Juju probably isnt matched anywhere else in the catalog of Siouxsie and the Banshees. Thanks to its killer singles, unrelenting force, and invigorating dynamics, Juju is a post-punk classic.$ 1981 Juju SR	1982 A Kiss in the Dreamhouse SR	1983 Nocturne SR	1984 Hyæna S
1984 The Thorn	1986 Tinderbox SR	1987 Through the Looking Glass SR	1988 Peepshow SR
1991 Superstition SR	1992 Twice Upon a Time: The Singles R	1995 The Rapture SR	2002 The Best of Siouxsie and the Banshees SR
2003 The Seven Year Itch R	2004 Downside Up SR	2005 Gold R	2006 20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection: The Best of Siouxsie and the Banshees
2006 Voices on the Air: The Peel Sessions R	2009 At the BBC	2015 Spellbound: The Collection R	2016 Classic Album Selection, Volume One
2016 Classic Album Selection, Volume Two