Siouxsie & The Banshees - Tinderbox

Tinderbox is the seventh studio album by British goth, new wave, and rock band Siouxsie and the Banshees, and it marks the band's first full-length effort recorded with new guitarist John Valentine Carruthers. Released on 21 April 1986 through Wonderland and Polydor in the UK and Geffen in the US, the album was produced by the band themselves, with the bulk of it recorded at Hansa by the Wall in Berlin in 1985 before final mixing at Air Studios.

The band approached the record with a specific goal in mind, writing the songs to be presented live in full on tour, much as 1981's Juju had been, and rehearsing extensively before heading abroad to track the material. That intent shows in the record's cohesion, with "Cities in Dust" and "Candyman," released as singles in late 1985 and early 1986, standing out as two of the band's most enduring tracks from the period, "Cities in Dust" in particular delivering some of Siouxsie's most vivid, image-driven songwriting, drawing on the destruction of Pompeii for its central metaphor.

Tinderbox reached number 13 on the UK Albums Chart and peaked at number 88 on the Billboard 200, and it drew strong reviews at the time, praised as an exciting, fully realized offering from a band still finding new ground more than a decade into their career. It stands as one of the more underrated entries in the Banshees' catalog, a genuinely cohesive statement built with live performance in mind from the start.

This limited 180-gram vinyl pressing is a great way to hear it.