Juju

After the more electronic Kaleidoscope, the band returned to a guitar-based sound for Juju, with McGeoch now the official guitarist and Budgie's percussion prominent. Severin said it was the first time they had made a concept album that drew on darker elements: it was not pre-planned, but as they wrote they saw a thread running through the songs. It was recorded in March 1981 at Nigel Gray's Surrey Sound studio.

McGeoch used a device called the Gizmo on Into the Light, which gave his guitar the sound of a classical string instrument, and an EBow on Sin in My Heart. For Arabian Knights he reworked a tune Siouxsie had composed on a Vox Teardrop guitar, originally in waltz rhythm. The sleeve reproduced a picture of an African statue the group found at the Horniman Museum in Forest Hill.

Juju came out on 19 June 1981, peaked at number 7 on the UK Albums Chart and stayed 17 weeks. The singles were Spellbound on 22 May and Arabian Knights on 24 July. Sounds said Siouxsie's voice seemed to have acquired a new fullness of melody, and critic Paul Morley wrote that it was the first integrated and sparkling-complete Banshees record since The Scream. The Guardian put it on its 2007 list of 1000 albums to hear before you die. Johnny Marr of the Smiths praised McGeoch's guitar on Spellbound, and Suede's Brett Anderson cited the record as a reference point.