If Siouxsie and the Banshees had only ever released The Scream, it’s still entirely likely they would still be claimed (by others, not them) as goth rock founders — as a debut that perfectly captures an aesthetic and approach, it’s a remarkable, powerful effort. John McKay’s sheet metal guitar and Steve Severin’s driving bass set remarkable moods song for song, while Kenny Morris’s drumming mixes bluntness with a surprising restraint, all while Siouxsie delivers fierce vivisections of angst and anomie, building up to the dramatic closing song, “Switch.”

Siouxsie and the Banshees did a huge amount to crack open what a band could do. One of the innovations on The Scream was splitting everything apart and leaving lots of space around every instrument, an idea taken into commercial overdrive by U2 and spiritual hyperspace by Joy Division. John McKay’s guitar is a big, hazy spray of effects that somehow works, Steve Severin’s bass is simple and perfect, Budgie’s drumming is solid and unpredictable. Siouxsie Sioux reinvents the idea of being dramatic by channeling the surreal and hilarious without sacrificing pure uncut sincerity. S+B also low-key steal “Helter Skelter” from The Beatles, their first of two massive jacks.