Juno Recommends Rock / Indie / Folk / Metal / Punk / 50s / 60s July 2021

Review: Sorry if this offends you, but in general terms, bands are just not cool right now. There's an exception to every rule of course, and in this case it is London four piece Wolf Alice. The alternate indie gang have the skill to match their grand ambitions on this, their third ad best album to date. At times it explodes with righteous anger, at others it simmers in quiet artistry with assured lyrics like "I am what I am and I'm good at it." The Mercy prize winning, Grammy Award nominees bring new energy and inspiration to plenty of recognisable rock tropes with elements of weirdness and transgression making the music all the more thrilling.

Review: Given that their last album was released way back in 2009, many thought we'd never hear from Kings of Convenience again. Yet here we are, bathing in the gentle beauty of Peace Or Love, the Norwegian duo's surprise sixth studio album. It's a formidably enjoyable affair that's as easy-going and gently sun-kissed as any of their previous excursions, with the duo adding quietly soulful, soft-focus vocals to tactile and pin-bright backing tracks that combine folksy acoustic guitars, twinkling pianos and lilting strings with shuffling rhythms that variously doff a cap to bossa-nova, samba, classic pop and French chanson. It's not difficult or challenging in any way, but given the state of the world right now, we're more than happy to settle for cheery, soft-focus beauty.

Review: Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds project is already ten years old, somehow. To mark the milestone, the cocksure Manc looks back on the decade with this double album of greatest hits. To be fair, he has managed to continue to serve up big, festival-sized rock tunes that have kept Oasis fans more than happy. He has selected each and every tune here with tracks from three of his number one records and two previously unreleased works including the brand new single 'We're On Our Way Now'. You know what you will get with these.

Review: It only seems like yesterday when Nick Cave delivered his wonderfully captivating joint piece with fellow-Australian Bad Seed Warren Ellis. In fact it was early March, and since then we've all likely been through the kinds of highs and lows this record reflects so accurately. There's a lot of space to Carnage, but it's also an album of intensity, in a refined and sophisticated way.

Packed with incredibly cinematic, theatrical and dramatic moments, at its loudest 'White Elephant' is bordering on a genuinely euphoric religious experience, one rousing and hugely emotional crescendo of chorus and big stage notes after another. At its quietest, 'Shattered Ground' sounds like one man alone with a piano and eternal sadness. Meanwhile, the title track is classic troubadour business. In summary, a grand, mesmerising and personal voyage.

Review: RECOMMENDED
It's usually a pretty reassuring sentiment when a band declares that they "never really wanted to sound like this". It tells us everything we need to know about how the end product, stylistically, found them as much as they found it. And how the songs they make are natural and entirely of them. White Flowers' Katie Drew made a similar statement ahead of this, the debut album from a duo comprising her and fellow Prestonian Joey Cobb.

Having discovered London's psyche scene while studying at arts college in the capital, the pair returned north to the bleak wastelands half of England frequently forgets exists. Evidently a good move, as the resulting record doesn't sound like most of London's psyche scene. Instead, it's somewhere between the opiate seduction of Goldfrapp, the understated but intense emotions of Cocteau Twins, and the dark undercurrent of Nadine Shah. You might not agree, but either way give it a play.

Review: Bill Brewster's Tribal Rites in 2017 was a fine collection from the Eskimo label, and now they return with another scene overview, this time collated by dark disco and wave specialist Curses. New Wave Acid Punx is a 38 track trip that spans forty years of shadowy club sounds across four sides of vinyl. His own 'Discipline' is one of the jewels in the crown and sits pretty with peers like Moderna & Theus Mago's 'Francesca (Wild At Heart)' and synth wizard Juan MacLean's 'She's Breaking Up' featuring the Fantastic Twins. Joining the dots between EBM, New Beat, Italo and acid house, this is a real doozy.

Review: Who needs commercial success, anyway? At least not in the Big Apple during the early-1970s - long before Manhattan became a millionaire's enclave and most of Brooklyn out-priced normal people. The New York Dolls certainly didn't seem to mind that their rowdy and raucous take on rock 'n' roll, somewhere between The Who in full meltdown mode and Jimmy Hendrix and the seedlings of punk, didn't capture mainstream imaginations when they first started out.

Through countless lineup iterations things would slowly and slightly change, with the band's first two LPs considered two of the most sought after releases in cult guitar-dom (The New York Dolls and Too Much Too Soon). Actress predates all that, taking its name from the outfit the Dolls grew out of, but the blueprint for critical recognition is clear already - part psychedelic, party sweat and blood and tears, part lager and fighting, all befitting one of modern history's most hedonistic eras.

Review: RECOMMENDED
The return of Ripley Johnson, and what a return it is. The man better known to most (confusingly) as Rose City Band, alongside Wooden Shjips and Moon Duo, started this project as an outlet for all the bits and pieces that wouldn't fit in with those two other endeavours. In truth, RSB isn't a million miles from either but wins out in terms of the freedoms it affords.

Rather than finding himself beholden to bandmates and communal touring schedules, instead the Band has always allowed Johnson complete control to do what he wants, when he wants it, and perhaps most significantly, with who he wants. Inviting select players to join in the creative process, it's a wistful and laidback steel pedal guitar groove from start to finish, touching on progressive rock, folk, Americana, blues, jazz and more.

Review: Ah, Andrew Bell - you've always been a hopeless romantic in our eyes. Lead singer of Erasure, queer icon, exceptional songwriter and a wonderfully talented studio head (both as producer and remixer), those who don't consider themselves avid fans (fools, basically) may not immediately recognise him as a powerhouse acoustic artist, too, but take it from us, All On You isn't the only example of this guy doing the do unplugged.

All On You arrives with typically high expectations in its wake; we've been waiting some time for this and the contents do not disappoint. Both the original work here and the exceptional re-reading of Paris Angels' classic pop-acid house smash hit 'Perfume' are incredible displays of imaginative repurposing, the latter being a particularly unique alternative version. But even Bell's own tracks feel and sound different without the trappings of amplification. It all sounds rawer, and more honest, than many artists allow.

Review: Ryley Walker is a serious music fan, but is he a serious man? With digital copies of Course In Fable bearing the wry descriptor 'Prog Fucking Rock', a sly joke hiding in plain sight for anyone who wants to open their eyes and notice, it would seem the answer is definitely "No", with the tone and attitude of this latest album only adding evidence to the theory that Rockford, Illinois' finest has a lot of a wit about him.

Of course fans have been only-too aware of this given his penchant for self-deprecation in interviews and amid on-stage banter (remember that?). Refreshing as this is, there's always the risk that artists might shape themselves in a restrictive mould as a result - constant self-analysis doesn't really promote free expression. Thankfully, Fable proves Walker can easily overcome this problem, representing perhaps his most loose and free-spirited exploration into indie folk blues to date.

Review: American rock band Garbage have done well to stand the test of time. Their seventh studio album has been influenced by numerology and things such as the seven virtues, the seven sorrows, and the seven deadly sins. It is a ferocious record that chews up and spits out issues of capitalism, love, loss and grief, and is, says frontwoman Shirley Manson, "our way of trying to make sense of how fucking nuts the world is and the astounding chaos we find ourselves in." Bold, confrontational and powerful, this is one of the band's most socially and politically aware albums.

Review: Given that their last album was released way back in 2009, many thought we'd never hear from Kings of Convenience again. Yet here we are, bathing in the gentle beauty of Peace Or Love, the Norwegian duo's surprise sixth studio album. It's a formidably enjoyable affair that's as easy-going and gently sun-kissed as any of their previous excursions, with the duo adding quietly soulful, soft-focus vocals to tactile and pin-bright backing tracks that combine folksy acoustic guitars, twinkling pianos and lilting strings with shuffling rhythms that variously doff a cap to bossa-nova, samba, classic pop and French chanson. It's not difficult or challenging in any way, but given the state of the world right now, we're more than happy to settle for cheery, soft-focus beauty.