Juno Recommends Rock / Indie / Folk / Metal / Punk / 50s / 60s: April 2022

Review: "The album that put Bon Iver on the map is back, this time on limited white vinyl stretched across two LPs. This originally minimal, heartbreaking 9-tracker - that dealt with the shock of Vernon's best friend Heath Ledger's death, among other events - is now rounded off with 5 alternate recordings, 3 of which are stripped-down live takes on the album tracks 'Wash', 'Beth/Rest' and 'Hinnom, TX'. The remaining two come from elsewhere; 'I Can't Make You Love Me' and 'Babys', like the others, were recorded at AIR Studios by Justin Vernon and his bandmate Sean Carey, on grand pianos and vocals only.

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Review: The following quote from Placebo frontman Brian Molko will surely endure: "if the song serves to irritate the squares and the uptight, so gleefully be it." Such a statement pairs neatly with its originator's new album; 'Never Let Me Go' is a folky and alternative indie tirade against political tyranny, climate catastrophe and overhyped new tech. With Molko making the album after discovering that his "neighbours were spying on me on behalf of parties with a nefarious agenda", we can be sure this one'll feel a little more transgressive than the band's former dreamier output, 'Sleeping With Ghosts' springing to mind

Review: 'Sensational Horse Muzak Sounds from a City (Chicago)'. Talk about a statement of intent. Nora Cheng, Penelope Lowenstein, and Gigi Reece prove that there will always be a fertile indie rock scene in the Windy City, picking up nods from some of the biggest tastemakers in any town ('Rolling Stone', anyone?) with this latest short form outing.

'Billy' holds no punches, with its cacophonous guitar crescendos taking anyone and everyone back to some garage, somewhere. Rough and ready as things get, though, there's no escaping the inherent warmth behind the chords, with the A-side giving way to the more experimental but nevertheless universally enjoyable 'History Lesson', a track that seems to follow perfectly on from the opener, while proving to newcomers there's an expansive style at play here.

Review: At times it borders on twee, in other moments it has that anger slant of a pure renegade. At no point does it sound in anything short of sweet. In many ways, Warm Chris isn't so much an artist album as it is an album by an artist determined not to sound like themselves, with New Zealander Harding interpreting no less than ten personalities on this latest record.

In theory, that might sound disjointed and lacking in direction, but in truth nothing could be further from the mark. From the lilt of 'Bubbles' to the subtly rousing 'Passion Babe', this is a place where borderline fantastical folk meets alternative rock without sharp edges, but nevertheless packed with personality. In short, album number four and things just keep getting better.

Review: For many years, Mother is the Milky Way has been one of the most sought-after artifacts in Broadcast's discography. Originally released in limited quantities during their final tour in 2009, it has finally been given a proper release as part of a package of reissues by the band's label, Warp. Musically, it's amongst their most trippy and psychedelic releases - an experimental mini-album that sees the late Trish Keenan add icy, ethereal vocals to frequently creepy and otherworldly sound collages that make use of field recordings, children's voices and decidedly hallucinogenic electronics. It's perhaps not their most comforting of releases, but it remains one of their most interesting and alluring.

Review: Franz Ferdinand round up 20 of their greatest ever hits on Hits To The Head, presented on gold vinyl and with a 16 page booklet featuring liner notes by JD Beauvallet plus lyrics and new and exclusive photos. 18 of the tunes you will be well familiar with , but two of them are brand new cuts just for this project. They are 'Billy Goodbye' and 'Curious' which has been co-produced by Alex Kapranos, Julian Corrie and Stuart Price. Elsewhere the big riffing, festival pleasing joys of 'Do You Want To' and 'Take Me Out' still hit the right spot.

Review: Sonic Youth's vaults get plundered for the umpteenth time here, but it's a no less welcome feat than the times it's happened before. 'In/Out/In', compiled in collaboration with US label Three Lobed, gathers 5 lost cuts never heard before from the band. Rather than being pulled from their late-80s and 90s heyday, all these bits were recorded in the noughties, as part of a spate of studio and writing jams that led to the bulk of their 2009 album 'The Eternal'. Raucousness is abandoned for slow-building, ethereal post rock: 'In & Out' nails a ritual jig in 2/4, while 'Social Static' and 'Machine' lend wailing noise and alarms to consonantly emotive chords and Gordon's teeth-clenched vocals.

Review: Much loved indie pop pair Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory served up their iconic debut album on Mute in 2000. It has sold over a quarter of a million records since and was nominated in the Mercury Awards that year. It comes alongside the rescheduled Felt Mountain Live Tour and is often said to be the band's most crucial and influential record. As such it comes on a fitting gold vinyl with a gatefold sleeve included new and insightful sleeve notes from Lior Phillips in an 8pp 12" x 12" Booklet.

Review: Dublin band Sprints quickly return to the fore after the success of their recent highlight 'How Does The Story Go?' This new EP is destined to be heard loud at beer swilling festival main stage all over the world. It has powerful riffs, plenty of fuck you energy and sizeable choruses that will connect on a large scale. Karla Chubb's spoken-sung vocals bring an alt-rock feel with a critique of modern existence served up next to an exploration of what it is to grow up queer in the modern day.

Review: Dutch group Lewsberg sure do know how to write proper songs. This is an album packed with them from front to back. Each one stripped right down tot he bare bones and only most essential sounds but they still convey rich and affection emotions that draw you in deep. There are particularly quiet moments like 'The Corner' with a simple violin melody, and more dark and dynamic cuts like 'Getting Closer' with the beguiling spoken word lyrics and shifting guitar chords building the pressure in subtle fashion. This is the band's third album since their debut in 2018, and it might just be their best yet.

Review: This official reissue of Bela Lugosi's Dead: The Bela Session comes on black and red splattered vinyl this time around and includes previously unreleased tracks that have been mastered from the original demo tapes of their first ever recording session together. The post-punk outfit's debut single was released initially in 1979. Bela Lugosi's Dead is not only their first single, but also often gets mentioned as the first goth record. It has since been covered by Nine Inch Nails, Massive Attack and Nouvelle Vague. The rest of the tunes from the demo session remain hugely innovative, reflecting their post-punk and dark-glam style with dub reggae influences that would further evolve in their output that followed and explain why the band went on to such cult status.

Review: Let's face it, we loved the early work by Tamara Lindeman, AKA The Weather Station, but it was 2017's self-titled album that really saw the parts slot into place, with the artist switching instrumental focus from acoustic guitar to piano. You could just call us suckers for ivories and have done with it, but our bias towards the most mournful and reflective keys imaginable is only part of the reason we fell in love with her so much deeper on later outings.

How Is It That I Should Look At The Stars is exemplary of how staggeringly effective the combination of that voice and that instrument actually is. Recorded live in March 2020, while clarinets, lap steel, and organs do factor, ultimately it's the vulnerability of this album's minimalism that really shines through - a work of such personal quality it almost feels as though you're in that room with her as the world outside begins to fall apart.

Review: Cassandra Jenkins made her first moves with self-released recordings in 2013 and 2017, but An Overview On Phenomenal Nature marks her step into the wider world via Ba Da Bing! It's a perfectly formed album of sweet but scuffed Americana with Jenkins tender vocal style offset by grizzled playing from Josh Kaufman. It's a powerful blend which leaves room for gnarled overtones and woozy melodics, creating a certain sparkle which sets Jenkins' songs apart. With intimate, meandering narratives folded into her lyrics, this is an album crafted with delicacy to sink deep under the skin - the kind of songs you'll carry with you for eternity.

Review: Adia Victoria makes a thoroughly welcome return with her third album, A Southern Gothic. From her unmistakable vocal twang to the scratchy tone of her guitar and the bottleneck lurches behind her, she embodies the south of the USA with undeniable flair. Doubling down on that idea for her third record, she conjures up another stellar run of blues with acerbic wit and confessional intimacy woven together in potent fashion. Featuring the likes of Kyahona and Margo Price on 'You Was Born To Die' and Stone Jack Jones on 'My Oh My', this might just be her best album yet.

Review: Yorkshire band The Wedding Present have announced their new project is about serving up one new 7" single every moth in 2022 - echoing the year of 1992 when they did precisely the same. It's a bold plan, especially with the current global supply chain and delivery issues and rumours we hear of all vinyl pressing plants behind backed up for months, but good on them for trying. It is something that has been in their mind since the 90s when the bands bass player used to get singles via subscription from Sub Pop Singles Club. It is called 24 Songs and sees David Gedge writing with the Sleeper guitarist Jon Stewart for the first time and the results are a perfect union, frankly.

Review: Jenny Hval on 4AD? Don't mind if I do. Hval's work has always been thought provoking (see 2016's 'Bitches Blood', a concept album about blood, menstruation, schlock horror and Virgina Woolf). During lockdown, she found herself reflecting on what it means to be an artist without the art. If you boil it down, she explains, you're left with "just me", but what does that mean?

And it's this idea that she explores on 'Classic Object', her eighth long-player. A published novellist, Hval wanted to tell simple stories - sometimes about her life, sometimes not, and as on the autobiography-meets-nurses-reciting-French philosophy tale of 'American Coffee' sometimes both. But, as she points out, a song isn't just words. "The reason we have melodies is to step into the dark and jump off cliffs," she offers. "And that's what we do in life too. These jumps - like in 'American Coffee'- detail what it feels like to experience things."

A record of many layers that serves up much to think about as well as enjoy. This is Jenny Hval after all.

Review: New magenta vinyl reissue of Thee Oh Sees' 2011 double LP, 'Carrion Crawler/The Dream', which was originally conceived as two separate EPs. While their former album Castlemania "was more of a vocal tirade", according to John Dwyer, "this one's meant to pummel and throb". It shows: every track from the opener 'Carrion Crawler' through to the musical globules of toxic waste that are 'Chem-Farmer' and 'Crack In Your Eye' pulse and shimmer with the reverberative sound of Thee Oh Sees' live show, with the studio recordings and production intended to mimic their in-person sound. Sirening guitars shred front and centre on this whirlwind of a gothic garage rock album.

Review: Looking back more than 20 years, it seems so obvious now The White Stripes was the sound of a band ready to conquer the world. For how massive they became, it's a genuine thrill to head back to the start and hear their hard-thumpin' sound in its rawest form. For what was essentially a two-piece garage band, they still hit heavier than their contemporaries, knowing exactly where to focus that lo-fi distortion and how to get the riffs and beats hammering in unison for maximum effect. There's not a dull moment on here, from the snarl of 'Astro' to the discordant clamour of 'The Big Three Killed My Baby', with Jack White sounding like a revolution coming tearing down the highway.

Review: Opening track 'Jeff Goldblum' sets a high benchmark that Mattiel then prove easily capable of matching throughout their third and arguably most impressive album to date. Locking listeners in with a taught garage rock rhythm section while allowing grunge-y riffs and melodic lines to colour outside the lines, crafting a tight workout of a song that wouldn't sound out of place next to Dinosaur Jr in your library.

Things open up significantly from thereon in, though, exploring deeper and more expansive, semi-psyche, part-journeyperson guitar tones which, at the darker end, nod to a lighter, poppier Nadine Shah ('On The Run'), while never being afraid to go down avenues that feel entirely made from the Atlanta group's own imagination, such as 'Wheels Fall Off', its low slung vibe and distorted vocal effects.

Review: LP return with a six album that once again won over critics and fans alike. The much and captivating 16 track collection, Churches, came alongside new single 'Conversation' and is steeped in friendship, love and sincerity. Mike Del Rio was executive producer of the album and other tracks were produced by the likes of Del Rio and Nate Company, with two-time Grammy winner Dan Wilson amongst others to have his hands involved in the process. The result is a genre-less and fluid album that was written during lockdowns but that very much will bring people together now.

Review: We're pretty sure our catalogue is full of albums by The Fall which we describe in gushing terms. More fool us for using all the words before this re-issue of the band's seminal live record arrived, because it really is that good. Laid down at shows in Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Houston, and Memphis, to put things in no uncertain terms it bangs in the best possible way, offering the kind of unashamed gutter punk we find ourselves sorely lacking in most rock 'n' roll today.

Of course, back in 1982, when this first landed, critics were torn as to whether they wanted to demand more from Mark E. Smith, et al. And back then perhaps that was a valid point. Speaking in today's terms, though, A Part of America Therein 1981 represents a moment in time when authenticity was far more commonplace, and the impact of hearing that is nothing short of profound.

Review: Brand new garage rock album from Moshi Moshi mainstays The Surfing Magazines, locking in perfectly mixed drums, jangly guitars, and charming lilting vocals. From vintage beds of amplified guitar on 'Locomotive Cheer' to the baroque bossa nova breakdown that is 'Century Breaks', we've locked in a multifaceted new project from a band routinely inspired by nightmare paintings and dream sequences.