A Kiss in the Dreamhouse by Siouxsie and the Banshees

A Kiss in the Dreamhouse, the fifth Siouxsie and the Banshees album, hit the shops on Polydor on 5 November 1982, and it's the sound of a post-punk band deciding the rulebook was for other people. The Banshees produced it themselves with Mike Hedges engineering, brought in strings for the first time and treated the studio like a chemistry set. John McGeoch, in his last year in the lineup, didn't stop at guitar: recorder and piano turn up in his hands too.

With Siouxsie Sioux's voice coiling over Steven Severin's bass and Budgie's restless drums, the record swirls headlong into psychedelia, from the lurching "Slowdive" to the dark, swooning "Melt". Critics and record buyers alike came along for the trip, pushing it to No. 11 on the UK Albums Chart a year after Juju had made the band godparents to the budding goth crowd.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.