Siouxsie and the Banshees “Kaleidoscope” (1980)

And so the Banshees effectively start over, with a new drummer (Budgie), new guitarist (John McGeoch), and a new sound. They keep the heart of darkness that was at the core of The Scream, but swap the constant jittery guitar and fractured beat for something sleeker, stranger, more expansive and greater. Put it this way: if the first two albums were grainy black-and-white, Kaleidoscope is a big-screen epic in glorious technicolor. The band absorbs elements that would have seen out of place just a year earlier: the acoustic guitars of "Christine", the keyboards of "Happy House", the swirling psychedelic feel to much of the record. Yet the Banshee's signature sounds -- Siouxsie's emphatic vocals and Steven Severin's flowing bass -- are at the core of the album. A triumph, yet they would make even greater records down the track. –Brad