This was the first Banshees album I owned (pretty much as soon as it came out), but I've listened to their first one, The Scream far more over the years. Yet, oddly, I don't seem to actually own that, so it's straight to their second album, Join Hands.
The album opens with a tolling bell, before John McKay's screaming guitar piles in soon followed by the pounding bass of Steve Severin in Poppy Day, and a brief verse from Siouxsie wraps it up in two minutes. The second track, Regal Zone, is a typical powerful Banshees album track, spiced up by some sax from McKay, but it's no classic, and the discordant opening to Placebo Effect leads to an interesting couple of minutes, before the grandeur of Icon, for me the high point of the first half, starting slowly and coming to a frantic climax. while Premature Burial feels like a trademark Banshees album track, sounding good in the moment (does that voice ever sound less than fantastic) without necessarily being the strongest song.
The second half kicks off with the tubular bells melody in the single Playground Twist, still as exciting and alive as it was on release. Just fantastic. At this point the album seems to run out of ideas, the repetitive musical box theme of Mother / Oh Mein Papa being a cute, but unsuccessful backdrop for Siouxsie to sing under. The album ends with The Lord's Prayer, a 14 minute thrash, a nice idea as a nod to their first ever gig, and probably great live, but it doesn't work as an album track, being too long and devoid of direction.
Nevertheless, this is a good album, probably a more difficult and abrasive listen than what preceded and followed, even if it's not easy or always rewarding.
3* - the 'experimental' second album - like the proverbial curate's egg, parts of it are excellent.
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