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

Review: Low have always had an uncanny ability to give people stuff they've never heard before. On album number 13, and in year 27 of their career, the outfit are back doing exactly the same thing again. Although it's not actually the same thing - just familiarly different. In many ways Hey What is actually Mimi Parker and Alan Sparhawk pushing deeper into the unknown than ever before, delivering something that could best be described as meta pop, if we didn't want to cut off our own fingers at the thought of writing such a phrase.

Other tags need not really apply, though. Low have curated an expansive trip into distorted balladry, mutant euphoric anthems, and weird white noises, all set to the pair's central, unarguably enticing vocals. 'Days Like These' being perhaps the best example of what we are talking about - halfway between a number one single and experimental electronica with rock guitar trappings. Basically, it's all ace.

Review: Public Service Broadcasting present their fourth album, Bright Magic, comes in three parts. It is the band's most ambitious record yet and it takes you to Berlin and to the heart of the Federal Republic of Germany. The record is all about the city and its varied history and many myths, as well as more seductive secrets. J.Willgoose, Esq admits "it's quite a personal story." adding wryly that it is also "an album about moving to Berlin to write an album about people who move to Berlin to write an album...".

Review: You don't get to call your band Amyl & The Sniffers if the music is anything short of corrosive, in the best possible way. Launching at a serious pace from the off, this is punk at its modern best - a juggernaut of sweat, swearing and uncompromising songwriting that's only rival for your attention comes in the form of riffs and gritty chord instrumentation.

But the Melbourne, Australia band's second LP is far from a simple rehash of the first, which we could have also described in similar terms to those you just read above. This time round things feel more thoughtful, perhaps even patient in certain moments. Of course they still wear 'weirdos' on their sleeves, tongues often firmly placed in cheeks. But there's a depth here to the songwriting, a retro and introspective feeling that reveals far more than the debut album let us hear.

Review: RECOMMENDED
The story behind No Code is one of resilience, rights, and division. First released in 1996, it arrived at a point in time when the band were still reeling from their troubled Vitalogy tour, in which they took a stand against Ticketmaster by boycotting the company, giving a sneak preview of the problematic relationship between bands, fans and ticketing platforms that would grow more visible in the following decade.

Once again, Pearl Jam struck it big here, with the record landing at number one in the Billboard 200 charts, making for the group's third consecutive number one album. However, the success was short-lived. Combining the alternative and grunge rock they were known for with elements of garage, experimental balladry and worldbeat, it's easily their most diverse, but that didn't suit everyone back then. Hit play today, though, and we're not sure anyone could argue against the depth and innovation at play.

Review: Back in 1984 music bible NME ranked Eden 20th best album of that year. Skip forward nearly 40 more and it has lost none of its unique charm and intoxicating sense of personality, bringing in an array of elements that weren't par for the course in those days and largely still aren't.

Everything But the Girl's first album, it arrived four years before 1988's groundbreaking Idlewild - by which time their acoustic instrumentation fully shared the space with dance synthesisation - and was considered part of a long-since almost-forgotten sub-canon, sophisti-pop. Bringing elements of jazz, bossa nova, and jangly indie together, it also aimed a sucker punch at the eyes of critics with lead single 'Each & Every One', in which Tracey Thorn focuses anger from being frequently ignored and patronised for being female into a volley of poetic, deceptively laidback lyrical fury.

Review: Welsh quintet Super Furry Animals put out their fifth studio album Rings Around the World in 2001. It was by far their most commercially successful at that time, and remains so nearly a quarter of a century later. Maybe that was down to the fact it was their most eclectic, too: elements of everything from techno to death melts, pop to jungle, punk to prog characterised the tracks. The LP was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize in 2001 and in the same year was named as Mojo's best album. This 20th anniversary reissue comes on heavyweight vinyl.

Review: Liverpool's indie rock band Space released their much vaunted debut album Spiders in September 1996. It went straight to number 5 in the UK albums charts and was widely acclaimed for its unique sound. The lyrics also came with plenty of humour, which stand the record apart, and musically its take sin plenty of weird and wonderful references from classic indie to pop. Big singles like 'Female Of The Species', 'Neighbourhood', 'Me and You Versus the World' and 'Dark Clouds' all sound as good now as ever and this 25th anniversary edition comes pressed on heavyweight 180g translucent yellow vinyl.

Review: New Zealand psychedelic rock band Unknown Mortal Orchestra received plenty of acclaim for their second album, II, originally released in February 2013. Fusing lo-fi, indie rock, psychedelic sounds and plenty of trippy ideas, it take sin funky as you like guitar jams, drawn out and sun worshipping odes to a higher presence and raw, psyched out soul tracks. Tunes are packed with great detail and manage to strike a balance between light and dark, beauty and hostility. The often inward lyrics add another alluring element to this album, which won Best Alternative Album in the 2013 New Zealand Music Awards.

Review: It's remarkable to think Anxiety Art is The Reds, Pinks and Purples' debut album. Released in 2019 on the excellent Spanish label Pretty Olivia, just 200 copies were available at the time, and they did exactly what 200 copies of anything tend to do. Cue pandemic style panic buying as fans, collectors, and observant bandwagon riders snapped up every last one.

Finally then, someone has seen sense to make this triumph of kitchen pop-rock more readily accessible, and we couldn't be happier. Alongside a delightful, slight, and wholly life-affirming playlist of 14 tracks that have probably forgotten more about guitar melodies than most will ever hope to learn, you also get an expanded collections of photographs of the Inner Richmond district of San Francisco, which partly inspired this record.

Review: Much loved Welsh rockers Manic Street Preachers serve up a record of lament and reflection on The Ultra Vivid Lament, which is their 14th full length record. The band has said the record is inspired by the music of their earlier years such as ABBA, post-Eno Roxy, the Bunnymen and more. James Dean Bradfield, Nicky Wire and Sean Moore of course all added their own distinctive take on those sounds and the result has you gazing into the distance, lost in the riffs, surfing drums and losing vocals. This version features a bonus 7" with the 'Orwellian' original and a Gwenno remix.