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

Review: If you've caught either Khruangbin or Leon Bridges live before, or indeed listened to anything by either band or producer-singer-songwriter, you'll know where this 20-minute EP is heading. The sleeve art, which gives more than a nod to the 1960s hippy movement, also offers a major clue.

Tripped out, smoked out, lackadaisical, bliss-infused overtures, honied and syrupy, easing you in so far that you don't quite realise how hard it is to crawl back out of the sugar-coated opiate haze. A collection of heady, hallucinogenic work for 21st Century high plains drifters, it's jazzy, psychy, lush soulful fare you'll be wanting to hear again and again, capturing the heat and slow pace of America's southern states with heartfelt songwriting from genuine masters. The result is something very special indeed.

Review: When it was initially released three decades ago in the summer of 1990, Slowdive's eponymous debut EP was heralded as an instant shoegaze classic: a drowsy, dreamy collection of hazy wall-of-sound, reverb-drenched songs that put the Reading band right at the heart of a growing musical movement. As this 30th anniversary reissue proves, it remains a fine collection of cuts. While lead cut 'Slowdive', a more orthodox fusion of shoegaze, dream-pop and indie-rock, was the one that chimed with listeners at the time, it's the two-part soundscape 'Avalyn' - and in particular the epic 'Avalyn II' - that resonates loudest in the 21st century. The latter track is so good that it's worth buying the EP just to get your hands on it.

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: All of Joy Division's biggest hits have been remastered and reissues by Warner this month. This particular heavyweight wedge of 12" vinyl offers "Atmosphere", which interestingly enough was first put in March 1980 by the Sordide Sentimental label as a France-only single under the title "Licht und Blindheit". Like "Transmission" or "Love Will Tear Us Apart", it is an essential tune with a real moodiness in the production rom Martin Hamnett. Curtis's vocals have a sense of finality to them that was to prove all too real when he committed suicide not long after recording it. 1979's "She's Lost Control" is an other archetypal, angular groove with the jittery drums that made the band so essential.

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: 'Mordechai is another blissed-out record from Texan party-chill-psyche trio Khruangbin. It's also among the outfit's most defined and driven, a smooth, sticky hot funk odyssey made for hazy afternoon soirees. Leader Laura Lee is, as ever, unfathomably siren-like on vocals, her bass grooves aiding the process of seduction no end. Even at the most upbeat and anthemic, 'Time (You and I)', it's hard not to feel woozy and intoxicated by the pared-back breaks and guitar lick combination. Dance floor ammo for sure, as is Pelota. Overall, though, it's an album best savoured slowly, allowing you to fully appreciate every lackadaisical moment of opiate goodness, with tracks such as 'Father Bird, Mother Bird', 'One To Remember' and 'Shida' summoning stunning sticky, heavy, deep atmospheres.

Review: It's quite shocking it's been six years since the last Caribou album, 2014's knockout "Our Love". Dan Snaith has never felt the need to rush his music out, and there was an interim Daphni album in 2017 to be fair to the guy, but here we are with a new set that sees Snaith returning to a little of the delicate songwriting and winsome electronica he forged his reputation on in the early days. There's a lot going on in here, from smooth as silk yacht rock-isms to deliriously modernist cut ups and more than a few wild pitch shifts to keep listeners on their toes. It's playful and heartfelt, and rarely lingers in one place for too long while still retaining a sense of calm. It may be not at all what you expected from Caribou's return, but we'd wager it's even better than you hoped.

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: Kevin Parker is a real enigma of a musician. The brains behind the rightly celebrated and ever-surprising Tame Impala, he's never one for delivering quite what you expect, while still understanding that one of the most important things in music is striking a balance between the familiarity disciples need, and the expressive exploration that can prick the ears of the previously uninitiated.

Album number four, "The Slow Rush", certainly adopts a different outlook to previous undertakings. It also more than lives up to its name. It's smooth, tripped out (perhaps not so surprising on the latter front) and strikingly void of those highs that seem to offer the aural equivalent to some opiate-amphetamine blend. But we don't miss out. Instead, we're given permutations of soul, prog rock and acid house, perhaps making for the most expansive record this guy has been responsible for.

Review: It could not have been less on-trend at the time. It's 1995 and the UK is getting to grips with the commercial potential of rave, house music and other dance genres, while momentum is building behind the most unashamedly 90s and British music movement in history, Britpop. Oasis are readying '(What's The Story) Morning Glory?' and Blur have just introduced us to 'Parklife'. Then along come Slowdive with their third album, arguably their deepest, most serene and captivating in the cinematic sense. The vision of guitarist, singer and songwriter Neil Halstead, the tapestry of beautiful melodies presented across the record owe plenty to electronic and ambient music, although in many ways were ahead of their time in terms of how those are interpreted by a live band rooted in rock. In short, a landmark release.

Review: Polly Jean Harvey is currently midway through an epic reissue series, delivering freshly re-mastered versions of numerous albums across a multitude of formats. The latest set to get a new vinyl pressing is 1993's "Rid of Me", which saw the celebrated singer-songwriter make her major label bow after years spent operating on small indie imprints. Widely considered one of Harvey's finest moments, the set was far more raw and aggressive than her previous work - despite using the same stripped-back line-up of musicians as its predecessor - with producer Steve Albini, famed for his work with the Pixies, conjuring a particularly "psychotic" sound (as its main protagonist has since called the album in interviews).

Review: It's easy to forget this is the first new record we've had from Doves in more than a decade, given the rousing call to action and emotional intensity of aptly-titled album opener 'Carousel'. A huge, nostalgic fairground thumper that sets the adrenaline levels at 11, it could be their most confident album opener to date.

And The Universal Want is far from a tease, too, capturing the essence of what we hoped from this Manchester trio's comeback fanfare. From the science fiction synth beams of Bowie ode 'Cathedrals Of The Mind', to the redemptive and hope-filled stadium indie of 'For Tomorrow', and the title track's melancholic proto-house stomp, it's very much a record of our time but also one that will likely stand the test of time. A very welcome return for, and another schooling from, Jez Williams and his team.

Review: Six years is ages for a band to go without releasing an album or doing very much. But for AC/DC, whose work rate has always been ridiculously high, it's a very, very long time. Between then and now, the band lost their lead singer, Brian Johnson, to hearing difficulties in the middle of their last tour, and saw drummer Paul Rudd arrested in New Zealand for 'attempting to procure a murder'. Talk about impetus to finally call time.

But then these are the guys responsible for one of history's greatest heavy rock triumphs, 1980s's Back In Black, released just months after formative frontman Bon Scott tragically passed. So it's no surprise Power Up, another post-traumatic release albeit an act of reunification with now (relatively) healthy Johnson and innocent Rudd returning, is among their best in the 40 years since. A comeback record that sounds exactly like AC/DC should - ballsy, bluesy, boozy riffs.

Review: It's hard to believe Gorillaz, the virtual band that triggered a million sci-fi articles about culture arriving in the future (well, the new millennium), have now been going 20 years. More than enough history to have long-since proven themselves far from a fad, on their seventh album it's clear they're also still capable of new ideas, or at least fresh ways to remix old ingredients.

Punk explodes next to piano balladry, lo-fi electronica eases into low slung hip hop funk. It's a chart-worthy affair that reminds us post-genre is today's mainstream, here served in traditional songwriting framework rather than the current dominant avant-pop crop. Even if the lyrics are non-stop curveballs, from Robert Smith's appearance on the title track, through Beck's MCing on 'The Valley of the Pagans' and St. Vincent's playful party vibes on 'Chalk Tablet Towers'.

Review: 30 years ago in August, Perry Farrell, Dave Navarro, Stephen Perkins and Eric Avery aka Janes Addiction put out their second album. It proved the most critically acclaimed and successful of all their work and in fact was their last for 13 years. Few other alternative rock albums have ever come close to the impact of the one. Fact fans will know, of course, the original record came with three different covers, and might also have read that the tortuous recording process behind the album is what eventually lead to the group's demise.

Review: This is not the first time we've asked if IDLES are the most important rock band of this century, and even if it was we wouldn't be the first to ask that question. The Bristol punk juggernauts refuse to be forgiving or compromising when it comes to tackling the issues they focus on - from racial prejudice and immigration to income inequality - and never fail to make a massive impact in the studio (and even more so on stage).

Ultra Mono is album number three, and it packs something serious. Well, actually an arsenal of serious things. Much like its predecessor, this is straight up sonic warfare being declared on the right wing patriarchy, weapons brandished from all directions. Staccato stomper 'Grounds' does more than reference thunderstorms, it sounds like the uprising has begun, with other highlights including 'War' and the electronic chaos of 'Squalls'. Exceptional, as ever.

Review: What proportion of the rock 'n' roll pantheons Neil Young will occupy when he finally (God forbid) stables the Crazy Horse is anyone's guess, but you'd better believe it will be more than most artists. 'Homegrown', until now at least, was at risk of being missing from those chapters, which would have been a crying shame given it epitomises what a songwriting tour de force he was in the 1970s. There's a raw feel to the album that goes beyond the near-50-year-old born-on date, perhaps best encapsulated in the fact we open mid-note - the tape started rolling after the maestro began playing. At the time Young was reeling from a breakup, and eventually decided not to release the album at all due to its personal subject matter. Now ready to let the world in, it's quintessential Young but also one of the closest we've ever got to his soul, albeit retrospectively.

Review: American hard rock band Guns N Roses are one of the most iconic to ever do it. Their Greatest Hits album is jam packed with smash hit after smash hit. Released by Geffen Records in part because of the delay in the making of Chinese Democracy, it came in 2004 amidst some infamous legal challenges from Axl Rose and former band members who weren't too pleased with its tracklisting. It got no promotion as a result but still topped the UK Albums Chart and no wonder with 'Sweet Child O Mine', 'Welcome to the Jungle' and 'Paradise City' all featuring amongst plenty more.

Review: You can never really understate the impact Polly Jean Harvey had when she landed on the UK music scene, and the radars of tastemakers like John Peel, in the early-1990s. Guitar tracks at the time were usually split into unashamedly lager-soaked upfront Britpop, or nihilistic and self-sabotaging grunge and metal from the US. PJ Harvey was neither, and on 'To Bring You My Love' she perfected a particularly UK take on heavy, darkroom rock.

Pressing play means stepping into a world where the blues can either be a sparse, pitch black tome ('To Bring You My Love') or stomping and sweat-soaked juggernaut ('Meet Ze Monsta'), and that's just referencing the first two songs. Compare either to the trip-hop infused downtempo melancholia of 'The Dancer', and it's pretty clear why this was one of the albums of its decade.

Review: Just when you thought all hope was lost along come The Strokes to fulfil the promises they made way, way back with their startling debut 'Is This It'. That was 17 years ago, and while the outfit have made plenty worthy of note in the years between then and now, we'd be surprised if we're the only ones thinking this latest is their best effort since that inaugural outing. Confident but also hungry, rather than bloated and lazy, there's plenty here that you won't be able to get away from in a hurry. 'Brooklyn Bridge To Chorus' might define the package best, delivering some powerful pop energy in an all-round homage to and critique of the 1980s, an era revisited again on 'Bad Decisions', which owes plenty to Billy Idol's Generation X classic, 'Dancing With Myself', with tracks like 'Why Are Sundays So Depressing' diverting to a synthdom route and 'Not The Same Anymore' throwing crooner styles into the mix. Exceptional stuff.