Join Hands

Siouxsie & The Banshees | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 25, 1992)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Geffen Records
• Run Time: 42 minutes
• ASIN: B000000OPI
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #374,325 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Poppy Day

2. Regal Zone

3. Placebo Effect

4. Icon

5. Premature Burial

6. Playground Twist

7. Mother/Oh Mein Pa Pa

8. The Lords Prayer

Editorial Reviews

This CD is an out of print collectible! It is the original 1992 release. Still sealed.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant ideas marred by some bad production, April 30, 2005

By 

V. E. Beard "The Muse-wail Interpreter" (Nottingham, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Join Hands (Audio CD)

"Join Hands"

Siouxsie And The Banshees

Rock, Punk, Alternative Pop/Rock, Post-Punk, British Punk

1979

This concept second album is largely considered to be their worst. A nice experiment, it is their most gothic yet has a similar sound to their debut, as it features the same line-up as their widely acclaimed "The Scream": Siouxsie, Steve Severin, John McKay & Kenny Morris (the latter two who quit just before the 1979 tour). The production (courtesy of Nils Stevenson & Mike Stavrou) is probably everyone's greatest complaint with this album. The cold, oppressive and concrete noise scratches the speakers mercilessly. Siouxsie's voice can also sound toneless at times. They had wanted Marc Bolan to produce, but this fell through also. However, it really isn't as bad as general opinion will have you believe. It never really misses, has a few good songs and one of their great songs as well. If you're in the right mood, it can really shine, tracks 4-7 particularly. Siouxsie also looks quite pretty in the inner sleeve illustration.

The cover art (four soldiers) is from a photograph of Guards Memorial, Horse Guards Parade, London. There are actually five in reality, though. They originally wanted to incorporate a picture of two children getting married, but this fell through after difficulties tracing the copyright owner. They then wanted to have the four soldiers embossed, but it was rushed so they were printed instead. The obvious theme of the album is not goth, but has war and even more specifically, burial, overtones.

Church bells in "Poppy Day" open the album as the space-rock guitar opening increases in volume until Siouxsie sing-recites the poem "In Flanders Field" written by a Canadian soldier during the First World War. Their aim was to fill the Remembrance Sunday 2 minutes silence with noise. It is not particularly enjoyable, but definitely isn't terrible. The tune is quite memorable. The good but slightly unmemorable "Regal Zone" is where they start to get scary, and was influenced by a news reporting on the war in Iran. All instruments are used to quite good effect here, and they seem to have achieved the sound they were going for.

"Placebo Effect" has a catchier of tunes, and perhaps could have fit in on "The Scream" generally comfortably. "Icon" is the first great song on the record. The opening is terrific, the verses and chorus in particular are very memorable with wonderful lyrics. Siouxsie's voice is in better shape on this one. Polydor obviously saw the potential in this song somewhat, as it was edited and remixed for a single, yet never released

The extremely creepy organ opening to "Premature Burial" introduces another great song on this mostly mediocre album. And then it gets going, the eerie sense of foreboding recurrent through the song the album title was also taken from a lyric in this song. The only single, and an early classic, "Playground Twist" is the standout of the album. The sinister bells, roaring guitars and pounding percussion make this tower over you and everything else on "Join Hands", making it sound like it was recorded in a different session to the other more mediocre tracks (although it wasn't). Something else that gives it such credibility is that is doesn't even sound like something from "The Scream". If all of "Join Hands" was of the same calibre and had as much energy as this, "Join Hands" would have most definitely faired better. It was written about the cruelty of children and was performed on Top Of The Pops as their debut performance. The cover art for the record sleeve was painted by a disabled child in Kuwait.

The schizophrenic, creepiest, most different and most experimental song on the album is a mixture of their own composition "Mother" and an old German music box song "Oh Mein Papa". The clinking music box plays the same tune repetitively as Siouxsie sings one side of a child's mind at the same time as the other side. The different perspectives take turns in overlapping each other to a magnificent effect. Whilst you're trying to concentrate on both lyrics (with lines like "downstairs I don't know if it's the springs in her bed or her joints I hear creaking overhead" and gasps of "Oh Mother!"), a dementing guitar creaks up gradually like Mother's bones until it is the primary sound you hear. At the end, you can hear her singing "Oh mein Papa, to me he is so beautiful...". Siouxsie has said: "It's very close to home. It's personal but I'm not hung up about it. I've deeply loved my mother. I've gone out and got pissed with her, called her by her first name. But at times she's been this disapproving figure and I've hated her I think"

"The Lord's Prayer" was first performed by Siouxsie And The Banshee's first incarnation (which included (though not at the same time) the names Siouxsie Sioux, Steven Severin, Marco Pirroni, Sid Vicious, Dixon, PT Fenton, Simone, John McKay & Kenny Morris) in 1976 at the 100 Club. They played a 20 minute version of 'The Lord's Prayer' with 'Twist & Shout' & 'Knocking on Heaven's Door' incorporated. Parts were also inspired by "The Benefactor", a short horror story by Walter Winward. They were described as "unbearable and pure noise for anyone's ears." They wanted to play longer, Siouxsie said: "It was a mistake, we were going to keep playing until we were thrown off (the stage), but we got bored before the audience did! I don't know why I did it, I just knew I wanted to before I was 21, I've always gone around being looked at so I thought perhaps I should go on stage and exploit it". The version here is widely similar, containing such improvised lyrics: "You`ll never get to heaven, not even if you`re good" and "I float like a butterfly, I sting like a bee" (quoting God), singing something in Latin as well as many random yelps, scathing laughs and weird yodels. Make your decision on whether you really want to listen to it or not.

This is a dense, macabre, scary, gothic album. Hardcore Banshees fans will obviously have it and I wouldn't advise starting a collection of their work with it. Give it a try though, as it's usually cheaper easier to find than "Once Upon A Time: The Singles" which also features the wonderful "Playground Twist". There are other magical moments on here, but the inclusion of their non-LP single "Staircase (The Mystery)" would have been wise. A fact about this is that the video was partly inspired by the murder of private eye Arbogast in the 1960 Alfred Hitchcock movie "Psycho". Also, Kenny had read about the case of multiple personality victim Christine Sizemore (who was the subject of later songs "Eve White/Eve Black" and "Christine") and thought that a picture of her at 10 years old with her eyes and mouth blacked out would have been a good single cover. They eventually decided the song and Christine were not related so stills from the video were used on the sleeve instead.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must, October 12, 2001

By 

room102 - See all my reviews

This review is from: Join Hands (Audio CD)

When I first bought this CD I didn't like it. Except for "Placebo Effect", which I immediately liked, I found the songs boring and uneasy to listen to. I gave it one or two more hearings and gave up.

About a year ago I found myself listening to Siouxsie, in general, more and more. "Placebo Effect" (and its "Thorn" version, which isn't on this CD) quickly became one of my favorite Siouxsie songs. I thought it was strange that such an amazing song was released "surrounded" by boring songs, but didn't gave it much thought. What finally drew me back to this CD was a TV program about Punk and Siouxsie in particular. They went over the entire history of the band and when the "Join Hands" era was in focus, with interesting aspects on the tour and the songs, I suddenly felt eager to listen to the CD.

Wow... what a surprise! This CD is absolutely amazing. Each and every song, including the haunted (and improvised) 14-minutes-long "The Lord's Prayer" at the end. I recommend you to listen to the entire CD in its original order of songs. The ONLY proper way of listening is playing it LOUD on a good system with deep basses. The drums suck you right in and make the CD coherent. The atmosphere is indescribable. Harsh, angry, full of energy, with quiet prologues and interludes, and frightening pain ("Placebo Effect", "Mother/Oh Mein Papa").

Amongst all Siouxsie's albums, this one is probably the toughest to get used to. But once you do, you'll find yourself listening to it again and again. Now that I'm writing this review, it reminds me of "Pornography" by The Cure which, although very different in style from the album in question, also took me some time to like, but finally became one of my favorites.

A must for any Siouxsie fan. The recommendation "Play this CD loud" was never more appropriate.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Give it a fair chance, January 27, 2003

By 

Jorge (Berkeley, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Join Hands (Audio CD)

I always say that the best music is complex and upon first listen it should get a strong reaction (be it positive or negative). It is not right to judge an album from the first listen, that is why this album gets so many negative reviews. Everyone seems to voice disappointment after their incredible debut (The Scream). I'm going to say something controversial: This is better than The Scream. I'm no gothie and will not use cliched words like "dark" but this album is not a sunny walk on the beach, be prepared for a rainy day and cold marble. The opening track makes me think of World War I soldiers, dead, it sets the mood. "Regal Zone," "Placebo Effect"' and "Icons" are just simply great songs, if you give them a chance you will find them in your head. "Premature Burial" is another sort of animal, even more cryptic than the others and certainly somber but it will grow on you and you will find yourself going around the house singing "we're all sisters and brothers...join hands!" Of course "Playground Twist" is another gem,...this album is awesome. Next is their little experiment called "Mother" which is just sheer genius, about the duality of mothers and how we love them and end up resenting them, seems to me Bjork stole Siouxsie's music box. Everyone blasts the last song (it's 14 minutes), "The Lord's Prayer" and I too think it is the album's weakest song but I would still rather listen to this song than anything that is on the radio. I find myself listening to "Join Hands" almost daily and multiple times, it's just an album that blossoms, the more you listen to it the more obsessed you get. Caveat emptor.