Join Hands - Reception

Reception

Sounds gave a very satisfactory rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars to the album. Pete Silverton noted a change in the sound, noting, "The mix is different to the last album. Now there's a clarity which frames Sue's voice like it was a thing of treasure". Silverton also wrote that some of the songs have "Siouxsie’s voice double-tracked with devastating effect".

In other papers like the Melody Maker, Jon Savage described the first track, "Poppy Day", as a "short, powerful evocation of the Great War graveyards in Flanders." He also wrote about "Placebo Effect": it "has a stunning flanged guitar intro, chasing clinical lyrics covering some insertion or operation." About "Icon", Savage wrote: "the brilliantly reverbed guitar is a perfect foil for Siouxsie's soaring and, for once, emotional vocal." Record Mirror also hailed the record, and qualified it as "a dangerous and volatile work which should be heard."

Critic Kenneth Ansell of Blank Space described in October 1979 the band's version of "The Lord's Prayer" as being not "a cathartic experience... The main problem I find in being confronted with 'The Lord's Prayer' at the tail of the album is that its inherent looseness of structure comes as something of a quantum jump from the carefully structured material that dominates the rest of the record. Nevertheless, it is a comparatively minor complaint", before calling Join Hands "an outstanding album" and praising the other tracks on the record. AllMusic shares the same of point of view about the final track of the album.