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

Review: It seems that Record Store Day 2022 isn't done yet as we get this limited 12" just for the occasion from Sun's Signature. It is an EP of five tracks by vocalist Elizabeth Fraser of Cocteau Twins and percussionist Damon Reece who has worked with Spiritualized, Massive Attack and Lupine Howl. The music is an experimental fusion of folk, synth and downtempo and is a fine offering for a debut release. After so long in the works it's a delight to finally have a finished product from this forward looking pair.

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: 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: Seven Psalms finds Australia's most imperious musical misfit Nick Cave leaving his Bad Seeds at home and teaming up with frequent collaborator Warren Ellis for a limited 10". The spoken word pieces on this record are the result of a daily song writing practice over a week during lockdown - Cave himself describes them as "small, sacred songs," set to appropriately subtle musical accompaniment. Recorded during the sessions for Cave and Ellis' 2021 album Carnage, it's a rich work in its own right that offers a different perspective on Cave's considerable gifts as a soothsayer.

Review: Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood and Tom Skinner (Sons Of Kemet) finally deliver on their much-hyped The Smile project, blending the anxious and synaptic tones of Radiohead's anthemic indie-electro with the bluer party tones of UK jazz. The new album features a slew of tracks with swelling strings recorded by the full brass section of the London Contemporary Orchestra, as well as a band of jazz players like Theon and Nathaniel Cross and Robert Stillman.

Review: One of Britain's best-loved and most accomplished pop-rock bands are back with another highly anticipated album. The Car is epic on every level with its adventurously designed tunes, lots of grand orchestration and plenty of easy-to-enjoy and enigmatic songs of love but also doubt. The Sheffield outfit's seventh long player was written by frontman Turner at his home in LA and mixes indie and psychedelic rock, baroque, glam and orchestral rock with production largely taken care of by frequent collaborator James Ford of Simian Mobile Disco fame. The title is a nod to the fact that - guess what - there are many references to cars throughout the lyrics.

Review: Slowcore and dream pop collide on this latest LP from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs - 'Cool It Down' is their fifth studio album and a surprise return almost 10 years on from 2013's 'Mosquito'. Uniquely teased by the whispery lead single 'Spitting Off The Edge Of The World' - a hopeless anthem for those left behind, laying somewhere between the slowcore of Deathcrash and the indie dream dreamt by Band Of Horses - this one is a focused eight-tracker of enormously mournful proportions. It also contains a guest appearance by Perfume Genius.

Review: Ever the king of the DIY approach, the inimitable Jack White recorded this one at his own Third Man Studio last year, then mastered it and released it himself on his own label. It's his fifth solo album - the second of the year - and is something of a therapy session for the cult singer-songwriter, with highlights galore. There is a real confessional quality to the songs here, especially on the likes of 'Please God, Don't Tell Anyone' which is about his regret for the way he lived certain parts of his life. He also professes his love for his new wife Olivia Jean, with plenty of fluid melodies and understated grooves also featuring throughout a fine album.

Review: David Sylvian is best known for his naughties albums 'Blemish' and 'Manafon'- as well as his time at the time of Japan - but at the same time as writing those he recorded a load of alternative material. They took the form of collaborations and side projects with plenty of big names form the worlds of pop, electronic and contemporary classical and are now all gathered together on this Sleepwalkers album. The moods range from romantic to blissed out, sensual to experimental with the likes of the track with Ryuichi Sakamoto, with whom Sylvian has worked for many years, being particular highlights.

Review: Almost two years on from their second album A Hero's Death, Ireland's fast rising guitar team Fontaines DC drop their third offering, Skinty Fia. The band have already shared its lead single 'Jackie Down the Line', and if that's anything to go on, we can expect a somewhat more mature slant on their guitar-fuelled sound, leaning more towards The Smiths and even Billy Bragg than the more rockist posturing of the past.

Review: Limited to just 2000 copies, Jack White's newest solo album 'Fear Of The Dawn' comes in a distinctive blue and white sleeve, making this move away from the White Stripes' native red and white colouration clear. Prefaced by the buzzing lead single 'Taking Me Back', we're stoked for the promised energy of this LP, which is the first of two albums slated to hit the shelves in 2022. This LP comes in either single black, 'astro' blue, or 'glow' white versions, as well as CD for the digi-heads.

Review: We're certainly not the first people to note that Being Funny In A Foreign Language is a break from the norm for The 1975. One of Britain's biggest and most opinion-splitting stadium acts aren't exactly known for their brevity or scaling back, having opted for song titles that take up far too much space, and often marrying these with mammoth tunes which are part of the reason people either love or don't really care for them.

Enter 2022's addition to the back catalogue. Overall, we've got just over 40-minutes of music here, which divided into 11 tracks means four minutes per song on average. And there's also a distinct lack of big room, at least up against their previous stuff, although there's still nothing subtle about the emotional indie pop here. Overall, then, this may not be the record die harders wanted, but it could well be the LP the band needed.

Review: Laurel Hell is a superb statement of intent from Mitski which confirms the artist is in a place of real power. Her talents work alchemic charms on listeners from the off despite being couched, ostensibly, in pop music. It features her channelling plenty of personal life experiences into cathartic music with which we can all connect. I wrote what I needed to hear," Mitski has explained o the album which follows up her availed last LP, Be The Cowboy, itself building on her breakout debut Puberty 2 in 2006. This one proves she remains a vital talent.

Review: Sweden's Viagra Boys offer up an 'electronic band' masterclass, upping the new ravey indie sound to new heights with an array of insane new post-punk heaters. Coming to the vanguard new indie label YEAR0001, it marks a departure from the label's normal focus on electronic and avant-garde rap. 'Cave World' spans twinging chaos and 'post-truth' sonic assaults; lead single 'Troglodyte' echoes their contemporaries Squid or IVVVO in its up-down drums and batshit vocals, while 'Ain't No Thief' might be the track with its third eye most open, melding an alarmist shred onbeat with rabid slap, and enlightened ramblings on current affairs and troubled mental states to top it off

Review: Natalie Mering's Weyes Blood project is 12 years deep now, and she follows up on 2019's Titanic Rising with this, her fourth studio album. Her sound evolves in kind over this time from the DIY roots of her appearances on Not Not Fun et al, and now she strikes the figure of an eternal songstress joining the dots from classic 70s composition and production through to the aching, head-fogged reflection of the modern condition. Lead single 'It's Not Just Me, It's Everybody' nails the mood of malaise, but the beauty of her songwriting leads and saves us from slipping into despair. Why not commit to the concept and cop this, the limited Loser Edition of And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow.

Review: Interpol's seventh album sees the long-standing NYC indie rock giants teaming up with the legendary production team of Flood and Alan Moulder for a trip into sadness, darkness and introspection. For devoted fans of the band, those themes should ring true and spell out another record to be cherished for those downcast days. Daniel Kessler's serpentine guitar work cuts an imposing, but ultimately graceful figure on 'Into The Night', while Samuel Fograino's propulsive drumming continues to explore meters beyond linear motorik drive and Paul Bank once more speaks from the deepest reaches of his soul.

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.

"

Review: RECOMMENDED
The thing everyone needs to understand about the UK is the disparity between projected image and real life is almost as overwhelming as the rich-poor divide. On the one hand, there's posturing of pomp, pageantry, grandeur and decorum. Then you actually get here and realise there are really only two types of inhabitants of this island nation, and few of either have manners - those who only give a shit about themselves, and the often eccentric others who do want to help those they pass on the street.

Yard Act, arguably the best thing we've heard to come out of Leeds since the emergence of super-talented techno producer Happa, directly address the first category of British resident in this, their startlingly raw and delightfully off-centre debut album. From middle class trendies to Brexiteering belligerents, think Sleaford Mods providing a backing track to IDLES' observational poetry, with an added dose of Jarvis Cocker-esque theatrics, only less camp, much rawer.