Album dossier / 1981

Juju

Siouxsie and the Banshees · Post-Punk/Gothic Rock

A defining early-80s gothic rock statement, its swirling guitars and tribal drumming influencing the entire goth subculture that followed. Unlike its studio-born predecessor Kaleidoscope, Juju was road-tested first: the classic line-up of Siouxsie Sioux, Steven Severin, guitarist John McGeoch (formerly of Magazine) and drummer Budgie (ex-Slits/Big in Japan) worked the songs up live through nearly non-stop 1981 touring before cutting the album in a single intensive month at producer Nigel Gray's studio in Leatherhead, Surrey. Severin later told journalist Mark Paytress (for the 2006 reissue liner notes) that the record's unity was deliberate -- "it was rigorously rehearsed and played" -- and that Juju marked the band's first real attempt at a 'concept album,' built around a recurring thread of dark, ritualistic imagery inspired by an African statue Sioux and Severin found in London's Horniman Museum, which became the cover art. McGeoch's guitar work on the album, especially on 'Spellbound' and 'Arabian Knights,' is still cited by Johnny Marr and Morrissey as a formative influence.