Customer Reviews

Join Hands (Mlps)

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This is the Siouxsie and the Banshees album people love to hate. Even the Banshees themselves have little good to say about it. So, let me be one of the first to say that I love this album.

It's royally screwed up, stark, noisy, menacing and capped off with one of the most horrific songs ever recorded in musical history. Ironically, The Lord's Prayer, their first song ever performed live caps the last song of the last album they would record with their prior drummer and guitarist. The Banshees could very well have broken up after this album.

So what you are hearing here is the end of a story, no hope, no optimism, no joy, nothing good at all. That said, if this sort of mess is appealing to you, then this album will surely be music to your ears.

The songs with the exception of 'Playground Twist' are minimalistic and militant mantras against Religion, Class and Society. The beats are consistently tribal and militant, the guitars are consistently shredded and Siouxsie is consistently high strung, angry and yelling at you. It is pure Post-Apocalyptic Fascism in it's most current form.

It's Post-Everything.

My recommendation, wait till midnight, turn off all your lights and listen to The Lord's Prayer. The words are chock full of references about Nazism and the Occult...

"Running Red on White"

"March, Left Right Left"

"Milk White Skin"

"Tomorrow Belongs to Me"

And more Anti-Christian sentiment than any Crass song ever recorded...

"Feel safe in your house of God, but you'll never get to Heaven"

"No you'll never get to Heaven. Not even if you're good. There's never ever been a heaven"

"I'm gonna get you in the end"

That said, I dub this one of Siouxsie and the Banshees best songs and creepiest albums.

- Michael Martarano

This second album from the punk legends was not universally acclaimed when it appeared in 1979, as their debut was so devastating and unsettling. The introduction, Poppy Day (lyrics from a poem by John McCrae) sets the gothic tone for Join Hands, extending the boundaries of The Banshees' unique punk strain. The album does prove that slow, melodic songs can be equally effective in evoking a sense of menace and unease.

Playground Twist is classic early Siouxsie, but it gets even better on Mother/Oh Mein Papa, a successful experiment where the juxtaposed words of the lullaby medley create a sinister feel by the eerie buildup of the music. Other songs like Regal Zone and Placebo Effect are more reminiscent of the debut album, with blistering guitar and Siouxsie's piercing vocals. Icon and Premature Burial are quite dark and melancholy, probably serving as inspiration for later Goth bands like Bauhaus.

The original album ended in a cacophonic bang with The Lord's Prayer medley which includes phrases of O Claire de la Lune/Mon Ami Pierrot, the chilling Tomorrow Belongs To Me (from the movie Cabaret) and sundry other sources. This re-release includes two new tracks, of which the classic Love In A Void is by far the best. Join Hands is more varied than their debut album and a worthy follow-up, and definitely one of their more underrated works.

The Best of Siouxsie & Banshees

A Bestiary Of...The Creatures

Superstition

Creepy, weird, disorderly, jarring, spiky: Join Hands is difficult to listen to and utterly fantastic. The tracks sound splintered, like parodies of what we think of as a "song," and yet at the same time are strangely appealing and tuneful. This internal contradiction seemed to fuel a lot of the Banshees' work, and Join Hands embodies it over the course of the album, essentially falling apart as the tracks progress, with songs like "Oh Mein Papa" and "The Lord's Prayer" disintegrating the idea of "music" entirely. And yet, like all the other Banshees' work, it's also quite enjoyable. This really is a work of art, very smart stuff.

The Banshees' second album seems to be an unfinished, half-hearted affair. It continues in the same tuneless manner as The Scream, but loses some of the potential punch due to the inferior production. That's not to say that parts of Join Hands are not essential.

The lone single, 'Playground Twist', is one of the best things the early incarnation of the band came up with. 'Regal Zone' sounds as if it could have been a single, and is the closest thing to a pop song on this album. 'Icon' was designated to be a single release, and received a remix treatment (which was meant to be included as a bonus track, though rumor has it the tape was unsalvageable). 'Icon' does remain another highlight from this album, but the power the song is given on the 2002 live version shows how stunning it could have been in the hands of the right producer.

On the downside, Join Hands does have its share of forgettable filler. 'Mother' is a prime example. And while 'The Lord's Prayer' is an over-long and amusing novelty once in a great while, it's obviously required filler to make this release a full length album, as opposed to an ep.

The bonus material here offers only minor appeal. While it's nice to have the original single mix of 'Love In A Void' on CD, the previously unreleased 'Infantry' is very anticlimactic.

The CD was remastered entirely from studio tapes, and the sound is very clear and punchy. It has not been compressed or damaged with any modern day remastering techniques, and the tape displays no audible sounds of age or decay. In my opinion, this would be the last satisfying audio remaster Siouxsie and the Banshees would receive.

Join Hands is my least favorite album by Siouxsie & The Banshees but with that aside, the remastering sounds amazing! Alas, the one unreleased track on here isn't that great but the original album sounds crisper than ever & worthy of listening to again.