Juno Recommends Rock / Indie / Folk / Metal / Punk / 50s / 60s: March 2023

Review: This Stupid World is an album from Yo La Tenga that sounds more live than anything the band has done for a decade. It's their first new record in five years and was created top to bottom by the band itself, building on their strong foundations yet bringing plenty of fresh new ideas. All three band members are going for it throughout almost every moment of every track, so it has an urgent, of-the-moment feel that is immediately impactful. It comes on limited transparent blue vinyl - a great record for indie fans whether or not they are familiar with this band.

Review: First released in 1985, Love was the second studio album by the many-faced English band The Cult, the follow up to their debut Dreamtime, and most notably, the one that included their breakthrough singles 'She Sells Sanctuary' and 'Rain'. At this point in their career, the band's M.O. was still goth rock - the all out pop-laced metal of the Rick Rubin-produced Electric album was still a couple of years off - meaning walls of whammied guitar and confident, roomy vocals characterise its sound.

Review: The first Gary Numan and the Tubeway Army album was a rather punky affair. Numan fronted the outfit with Jess Lidyard on drums and Paul Gardiner on electric bass from 1977 onwards. A second album Rituals followed in 1097 and both records sold in their millions as well as being great early inspirations for electro and techno artists. Numan went on to work for years with the same musicians but did so only under his own name. This reissue from Beggars Banquet comes on marbled blue vinyl.

Review: Who would have thought that'll these years later the cartoon band that is Gorillaz would still be going, still be popular, and still turning out great music? Well, they are. They have kept details of this new album under tight guard for a while but what we do know about Cracker Island is that it features a truly all-star lineup of heavyweight guests such as Thundercat, Stevie Nicks, Tame Impala, Bootie Brown, Adeleye Omotayo, Bad Bunny, and Beck. As always the sound is alternative indie and electronic with a playful sense of character.

Review: Five years on since their last, Young Fathers are finally back with their fourth album (if you don't include their introductory mixtapes Tape One and Tape Two). Heavy Heavy finds the trio of Alloysious Massaquoi, Kayus Bankole and G. Hastings embracing a back to basics approach formed around working in their own basement studio, keeping the equipment turned on and allowing the ideas to flow freely. Cherry picking the most fruitful moments from these extended sessions has resulted in a striking, invigorating album which bursts forth with the opening salvo of 'Rice' and 'I Saw', clutching you tight and not letting go for the duration of the album. It's been worth the wait.

Review: Sandbox is the 1987 sophomore opus by Ohio rock n' rollers Guided By Voices, noted for its contrasting style and appearance to ther debut Devil In My Toes. This new version is a legit repress from the band's original label Scat Records, driving home the band's characteristically rollicking hard rock sound yet also throwing many a curveball, such as quoting the Beatles and some proud, accented singing.

Review: Originally released in 1982, A Flock Of Seagulls' eponymous debut album heard them burst on to the new wave scene with advanced songwriting and catchy guitar laps and lyrics. With Phil Spector hailing the album as 'phenomenal', perhaps for somewhat conforming to his wally production technique, the band ended up being venerated near-timelessly for their quasi-electronic synth tunes like 'I Ran' (clock the use of early electronic drum pads in its breakdown). This is new wave at one its best pop-centric peaks.

Review: Movietone are a Bristolian band from the late 1990s to early 2000s whose music aimed to bridge the conceptual gap between film and sound, mainly through the sonic medium of shoegaze and the visual medium, of, well, not-so-visual lyrical references to film. That being said, this new reissue from ultimate curators World Of Echo hears their debut album receive a full restoration, bolstering memories of their rise in the late 90s as a secondary school shed band and on into a full-blown powerhouse. With nods to every influence from beat poets to Galaxie 500, Movietone is and are an intellectual's darling of post-rock and indie.

Review: In 1981 The Cure had just released Faith, and they took their ever-deepening well of gothic indie pop to Australia. This tape release captures their performance from an FM broadcast in Sydney that summer, and it's a perfect document of Robert Smith and co. at that raw stage of their development. Opening with Faith track 'The Holy Hour' and taking in other brilliant classics from the spikier Boys Don't Cry and Seventeen Seconds this is a must-grab for fans of the band, not least those who love their post-punk leaning emergence the most.

Review: Inhaler have been a long time coming. Causing significant groundswell after emerging from a Dublin scene re-energised some time ago across all walks of music, they placed fifth on BBC's Sound of 2020 poll, only to contend with a pandemic that tore out the industry's heart, replacing it with record streams for Tracks We Used To Love and dashing the dreams of many young contenders. Not these, apparently.

The expectations go much further back than that, though. They began life around 2012, and frontman Elijah Hewson's dad is Bono. Say what you will about him, if anything tips someone for future fame it's that paternal figure. Now onto their second album, none of that comes close to being as important as what you hear on the record. Channeling more jangle but with extra thump, influences from Joy Division and Stone Roses to The Killers and The War On Drugs are audible, making this easy to love and guaranteed to leave a mark long after play.

Review: Curve's music represents the electronicization of shoegaze, coming at a turning point in the 1990s in which post-industrial sounds and hoover guitars came naturally together. While the duo's sound seems contemporary, 'Frozen', their second EP, came relatively early on in their career. Imagine MBV but with well-mixed instruments and perhaps even a suitability for the club environment - these ingredients form the basis of the vindictive 'Zoo' or the rapturous 'Coast Is Clear'. This reissue comes as a clear white marble edition; confident road-trip struts, fluorescent guitar washes, and gorgeously lethargic vocals complete Curve's neo-shoegaze picture.

Review: The Pale Fountains first emerged in the early 80s out of the plentiful climes of Liverpool's indie scene, and while they may have split by 1985, they left a respectable legacy behind. Now Proper are reissuing their debut album Pacific Street, which originally came out in 1984 and set out the band's stall good and proper. Their sound is jangly guitar-oriented pop with plenty of feel good, singalong moments, in some ways foreshadowing the likes of Lightning Seeds who would emerge some four years after.

Review: MOV's all-in-one Curve reissues campaign continues strongly with this new iteration of 'Blindfold', the industrial shoegaze band's debut EP. Establishing the sound they would inevitably grow into, and more or less own, for at least a decade to come, tracks such as 'Blindfold' are as emotional as they are driving, pitting Liz Fraser-esque vocals (courtesy of titan Toni Halliday) against industrial hip-hop/rock beats. The hip-hop influence is further bolstered by a rare rap feature on a shoegaze tune: that of JC-001, the one-time 'fastest rapper in the world'. The formula of a Curve track should be clear enough on finishing this EP; stark, mysterious, sexy and strange, and always with a sense of self-assured, yet pensive, forward propulsion.

Review: Following up their second EP 'Frozen' came their third release 'Cherry', also released in 1991, and which contained some of their best music yet. Compared to their prior releases, the EP contained a much greater variance in sound, with closer 'Cherry' sounding like a lost Bjork track blasted throughout a gigantic ice cavern, 'Die Like A Dog' baring its fangs with full-fat basses and guitar strum-washes, and the inimitable 'Galaxy' summoning ultimate feels for its inclusion in the heartbreaking Mysterious Skin soundtrack. For what it's worth, 'Cherry' is a timeless shoegaze EP.

Review: You can trace the roots of Fu Manchu back to the disaffected wastelands of mid-1980s US suburbia. Specifically Palm Desert, California - at the time, a quite unlikely focal point of a loose 'scene' defined by interferential rock & roll, drawing lines between early grunge, psyche, punk, metal and blues, the movement gave us Masters of Reality, Sleep, and, of course, Queens of the Stone Age. Stoner-leaning Fu Manchu were very much at the centre of that, and are now ready to celebrate 30 years since they emerged from the dry heat and bong water of the period, they've been putting out episodic 10" vinyls on limited pressings to mark the occasion. Musically, this is familiar territory, as hard and gnarly as it is exploratory, funky and infectious, which can only be a good thing when you're celebrating a big one.

Review: Album six from the mighty Paramore has been kept pretty close to the band's chest. And the collective chest of mighty Atlantic Records, with at least one UK national newspaper accidentally (or not?) breaching a review embargo stopping any critical editorial appearing before the actual release date. How's that for a sign of the brave new world we've wound up living in.

Of course, last minute - or on the minute - is the way things make sense these days, with pre-album singles usually peaking a week or so ahead of the full release and tickets often only shifting in the final days before an event. That said, we had our first flavour of this record in the form of title track four months or so ago, Paramore's first single in four years, and fans have been rightly chomping at their bits since. Yes to more emotionally charged, musically accomplished alternative but accessible rock, yes to the ever-mesmerising voice of Hayley Williams, and yes to less is more promotion.

Review: The Strokes The Singles - Volume 01 is a 7" vinyl boxset comprised of the ten original vinyl singles released from the band's first three studio albums. Utilising the original singles artwork, the boxset will include standard black 7" vinyl of 'The Modern Age', 'Hard To Explain', 'Last Nite', and 'Someday' taken from Is This It (2001), while '12:51', 'Reptilia', and 'The End Has No End' comes from Room on Fire (2003), and 'Juicebox', 'Heart In A Cage', and 'You Only Live Once' are culled from First Impressions of Earth (2006), all with their accompanying B-sides.

Review: Australian art-punk combo Tropical Fuck Storm bring the weird and wonderful to this new album on Joyful Noise. Submersive Behaviour is a new type of take on the well worn cover album concept. The band put all their energy into 36 minutes of mental reworks of epic classics by legends like Jimi Hendrix, Middle Aged in the Middle East in the Middle Ages, Men Men Menstruation and The Stooges. Friends and collaborators such as Dan Kelly, the Bard of Beenleigh and Aaron Cupples all get involved to add to the carnage.

Review: Just as indie bands today tend to juggle membership of multiple outfits, shoegaze bands in the '90s were on the just the same wavelength. Luna, for example, received most of its initial attention thanks to Dean Wareham of Galaxie 500's involvement - now backed by new friends Stanley Demeski and Justin Harwood. But music always defies the static expectations of the press. Lunapark, first released in 1992, is a happy opiate of an LP, contrasting to Galaxie's moody, unfiltered aesthetic. With its sound palette largely immaculate, and its crunching guitar chord progressions influenced by blues and Americana - this album could be said to be an ode to overcoming, and/or basking in, addiction.