Hyæna

Hyæna is the sixth studio album by English post-punk band Siouxsie and the Banshees, released in 1984. It was reissued, remastered and expanded in 2009. In the United States, Hyæna was the first Banshees album to be released on a major label – Geffen Records (now sister label to their then-UK label, Polydor).

Prior to the release of the album, "Dear Prudence" became the band's biggest hit in the UK, reaching No. 3 in September of the previous year. The song was intended to be a stand-alone single in Europe, and as it was not issued as a single in North America, it later was added to the American version of Hyæna.

Hyæna is the only studio album that guitarist Robert Smith of The Cure composed and recorded with Siouxsie and the Banshees.

Critical reception

The album was mainly well received upon release. Melody Maker wrote: "Parts of it are so wistfully carefree that it's impossible not to credit Robert Smith as the talisman – his irreverence seems to course through everything. "Take Me Back" is the Banshees rollicking like some primitive jazz combo drunk on the Good Lord's wine. On "Belladonna", Smith's liquid guitar relaxes Sioux to the extent that she drops a few masks to reveal her vulnerability. When the siren sings "daylight devours your unguarded hours", she's illuminating her own predicament so acutely it surely can't be coincidence. "Dazzle", too, is naively daring: Siouxsie's voice, framed alone against the firmament of strings. It could be Lloyd Webber's Cats or something by Vaughn Williams. You can get impressed, wrapped up and lost in this".