Performer Notes

Siouxsie & The Banshees: Siouxsie Sioux (vocals, guitar); John McGeoch (guitar); Steve Severin (bass); Budgie (drums, percussion).
Recorded at Surrey Sound, Surrey, England in March & April 1984.
Personnel: Siouxsie and the Banshees (vocals); Siouxsie Sioux (vocals, guitar); Steven Severin (guitar, keyboards, synthesizer, bass guitar); John McGeoch (guitar); Budgie (drums, percussion).
Illustrator: Thomi Wroblewski.
Photographers: Thomi Wroblewski; Joe Lyons.
Arranger: Siouxsie and the Banshees.
Siouxse & the Banshees were never afraid to experiment with other musical styles while using their trademark gothic sound as a starting point, as heard throughout their 1981 release, JUJU. Their previous release, KALEIDOSCOPE, saw the band letting synthesizer seep into their ethereal sound, and on JUJU, experiment with Middle Eastern and psychedelic sounds with a more direct (almost traditional) rock approach. Over the course of most of their recordings, Siouxse & the Banshees either met or topped their previous releases, and JUJU more than delivers on the promise of their previous work, resulting in arguably the group's (and one of goth rock's) finest album ever. Siouxse never lets the intensity dim down on such highlights as the album opening "Spellbound," "Arabian Knights," "Halloween," "Night Shift," and "Voodoo Dolly." Elements of JUJU can be directly sampled in the early work of a band that would bring alternative rock to the masses by the early 90's - devout Siouxse & the Banshees disciples Jane's Addiction.

Professional Reviews

Q (p.124) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[T]he Banshees' other-worldly pop-goth masterpiece..."

Q (12/99, p.171) - Included in Q Magazine's Best Gothic Albums Of All Time - "...The commercial epitome of charity-shop occultism....drapes its requisite 2 hits in some truly disturbing Halloween shtick....John McGeogh's voodoo guitar could raise the dead."

Mojo (Publisher) (p.120) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "The sheer muscular passion of the performances lent credibility to Sioux's increasingly lurid lyrical fantasmagoria..."