Juno Recommends Rock / Indie / Folk / Metal / Punk / 50s / 60s August 2020

Review: Cutting to the chase in an attempt to avoid something cliched like 'what an honour it is to write something on a Joy Division album', it's astounding that 'Closer' has now passed the 40 year mark. Perhaps not as immediate and certainly less familiar to many compared with their 'Unknown Pleasures' debut, in many ways this serves the record well. It's an altogether more experimental beast in terms of song structures and ideas, and as such doesn't feel definitive of a moment but instead timeless. That said, this is still very much a case of perhaps the greatest post punk band of all time delivering a masterpiece difficult second LP, with audible hallmarks of act and era. From opener, 'Atrocity Exhibition', through the whispered and suppressed 'Heart & Soul' and onto the beguiling 'Decades', 'Closer' makes it painfully clear that had circumstances been less tragic Joy Division would likely have continued to deliver for many more years than fate allowed.

Review: The world was very different in 1992, but some of the greatest musical moments from that year stand the test of time. Just take Polly Jean Harvey's staggering debut - the making of a musical icon and one of the era's finest examples of songwriting. It still sounds exceptional and its messages still resonate, lifting the woke-washed veil of our age in one fell swoop, laying bare the fact that many toxic attitudes prevail. It's rock music, but that's hardly the point. What matters isn't so much what's being played, but how and what's being said. Delivered with an air of Pixies and nod to Patti Smith, written in the wake of a relationship imploding, our introduction to Harvey remains vital as ever. A refusal to accept simplistic, patriarchal views of womanhood and femininity, or indeed simplistic patriarchal views of anything, the record's razor sharp observations, cunning wit and deft ability to reference but feel original is remarkable.

Review: No matter how many times you hear it, you just cannot resist air drumming and foot stomping to Joy Division's most famous hit. It's a track that resonates through the ages, and when you know the story of lead singer Ian Curtis it always takes on extra sombre resonance. Here it gets a special remaster and is served up with the alternative Pennine version which sends the drums into overdrive and mad echo and distortion all make the track that bit more frenzied, intense and essential. The short but sweet, hard hitting post punk banger "These Days" is also included on this heavyweight 12".

Review: Smoked-out Texan psych troupe Khruangbin have picked a pretty apt moment to release this recording of their live show at Villain, Brooklyn. For starters, it's summer 2020, and if it weren't for a global pandemic there's a good chance a few of us would be recovering from the night before to a late-afternoon, or better yet early-evening performance from this lot at some festival or other. Secondly, because of said health crisis, we're all starved of the unique qualities that come from a band playing in the flesh. Dinner is definitely served here, then, via generous helpings of Laura Lee's bass-laden grooves and gorgeous, intoxicatingly airy vocal delivery. First laid down in 2018, when Khruangbin were touring in support of their second album, while 'Con Todo El Mundo' provides the majority of musical moments here, really 'Live At Villain' is a self-contained record - an hour or so of the band's typically magical and engrossing stage stuff, captured for keeps.

Review: Warner has worked on a run of Joy Division reissues this month and after their most famous "Love Will Tear Us Apart" comes "Transmission" which is not far behind. A 2020 Digital Remaster reboots the sounds but retains the grit and urgency of the original, which is a surging post-punk anthem filled with angst but also a sense of vulnerability and melancholy that makes it so much more enduring. "Novelty" on the flip has a broken beat line, gauzy guitar riffs and is underpinned by an excellent insistent baseline that never lets up.

Review: Reissues go one of two ways. Well, OK, maybe three. You're either left blown away by how fresh something sounds, reminded of a special moment in music history and how good an example a record is of that time capsule, or walk away wondering why you thought it was necessary to play, let alone buy, from this particular archive. As you'd hope, listening back to Slow Dive's seminal 'Just For A Day' fits into the second of those conclusions. Yes, soaring rock that seems to foster our dreams and fantasies in walls of power shoegaze does feel like a recollection rather than where we're at today. But my goodness do the epic arrangements and woozy artistry in the songcraft still sound as awesome, grandiose and yet personal as ever. One for the books, for sure.

Review: Irish post-punk band Fontaines D.C only waited 18 months between their debut and this sophomore follow up album. Ot still manages to veer away from what you might expect, with acts like Suicide and The Beach Boys apparently more influential on the writing process than the post-punk outfits you might expect. Still the record features anthems about flirting with self-destruction and gargantuan tunes that have fast and frenetic grooves. Touches of the surrealism they experienced while on a constant and busy tour pervade the album and make it a fine follow up that show the band still have a great knack for writing urgent songs that are both personal yet relatable.

Review: Where would we be without Jarvis Cocker? It would probably be a similar world, but one that never had the Michael Jackson BRIT Awards incident, Pulp's wonderfully astute take on socially and politically conscious Britpop, or 2019's British Christmas No.1, '(C**ts Are Still) Running The World', a 2006 track propelled to the top via a public bid to show the Conservative Party what at least some of the electorate were thinking. Despite cultural omnipresence, 'Beyond The Pale' is arguably the first proper JC record in over ten years - finally an album that again fully embraces the resolutely UK combination of geek and rebel which have made so much of his work stand the test of time this far. It's melodramatic, psychedelic, electronic pop that simultaneously celebrates one of the truly good aspects of Britain's place in the world today - musical scope and variety - while dishing out a welcome body blow to the country's downfalls, problems and misfortunes. Many of which haven't changed since 'It' landed in 1983.

Review: We've come to expect serious bass bounce from James Greenwood since he first offered up his Ghost Culture project via Erol Alkan's phenomenally consistent Phantasy imprint. Not everything the producer has done fits that description, of course, but when hammer hits said nailhead the results are always spectacular. 'Barke' is the latest case in point. Forsaking pace for a loose, floating, slo-mo vibe, the staunchly Summer of Love downtempo air is made all the more intoxicating by Falle Nioke's exceptional voice. And, as you'd expect, West Africa's famed singer, percussionist and multi-instrumentalist also adds plenty of non-lyrical flavours to the EP. Up against the opener things are tougher and ravier on the propellant 'Fufafou', while 'Loneliness' taking things down a more pared-back, minimal but detailed warbling tech route before 'Mounemouma' reverts to that laidback liquid approach to cap things off.

Review: It should take about two seconds to remember this one, and the global chart domination it enjoyed back in the far more innocent times of February 2001. Just in case, though, 'Drops Of Jupiter' is one of the most immediately recognisable slices of heartwarming and emotional indie pop niceness you're likely to fall head over heels for again, hence the fact it has been covered by innumerable stars since its initial release. In may ways, once you know the story the track takes on a very different form - far less amorous and much more about longing and lamentation. Train's lead singer, Patrick Monahan, wrote the lyrics about his mother shortly after she died, with opening lines coming to him in a dream. The kind of personal story that usually inspires work that stands the test of time, here's the evidence if you need it.

Review: There's a carefree, lackadaisical and generally upbeat disposition running through this incredibly welcome record from Devendra Banhart. Something of an enigma - poet, artist, actor and (of course) singer/songwriter - we have the sunshine of his adopted Californian home to thank for this one, with the album nodding to the slick and inviting beach pop said state invented. There's plenty more going on here than besides well polished niceness, though. Each delicate note is played with a purpose that's feels far more commanding than the loose vibe, background choruses recreate the glory days of soft soul with pinpoint precision, while the range of instruments at play is nothing short of impressive. It's unlikely you'll hear a nicer thing this year, and if you do we'll eat our words at the first opportunity.