MUSIC WEEK MAGAZINE ARTICLE October 2005
The Junipers from Leicester, they are unbelievable. So prolific, they've written 100 songs since Christmas & 90 of them are spot on, fantastic.
UNCUT MAGAZINE ALBUM REVIEW October 2008
The Junipers - Cut Your Key *** A wash of sunshine-soaked California sounds from, er Leicester. While in patches it resembles an even more laid back Magic Numbers, it acquires an accumulative effect of not-trying-too-hard charm. As the chord changes eke out nostalgia & optimism in equal degrees, highlights emerge- "Out My Pocket", "Song That Fades Away" - & Side Two of "Abbey Road" is happily evoked.
RECORD COLLECTOR MAGAZINE ALBUM REVIEW October 2008
The Junipers - Cut Your Key **** The Junipers obviously like Macca's bouncing pop ditties & the toytown affectations of Mark Wirtz, but Cut Your Key may well catch on with fans of Goldfrapp due to it's richly-layered keyboards & relaxed charm. Radio-friendly, loveable pop with it's hair in the stars.
THE WORD MAGAZINE (ALBUM REVIEW Nov 2008
BBC4 have been running a series of programmes this year re-evaluating 1968: I'll bet The Junipers haven't missed many. In the world of these Leicester cosmic pop sprites I bet The Byrds "Notorius Byrd Brothers" is forever spinning on the gramophone, & the studes are in a state in perpetual forment. Sheena draws inspiration from noted envelope pushers The La's. Elsewhere, the likes of Gordie Can't Swim & Mortimer push fearlessly forth into a place where Maxwells Silver Hammer still clangs away joyously. Cut Your Key is sweet, faithful & far from hard work, & every nod to The Hollies & The Move is perfectly measured.
ELECTRIC ROULETTE ALBUM REVIEW May 2008
When Roulette hero, Mark Wirtz (man behind many popsike masterpieces) declares "Love it! Makes me cry with nostalgia!", you know you're in trouble. But what glorious technicoloured trouble we're in. The Junipers have been featured on these pages before (click here) leaving me gasping that they had "more hooks than a Abu Hamsa lookalike competition". It's safe to say that I absolutely adore this band... and with good reason.
Thankfully, San Remo records seem to agree and have given the psychedelic good vibers a chance to make a full and proper LP. The world needs to brace itself. With the release of 'Cut Your Key', summer has officially started... and it looks something like The Magical Mystery Tour.
I've fawned over a couple of albums this year already... The Shortwave Set's LP, Martina Topley-Bird, The Last People On Earth... but all of them pale next to this incredible debut. The Junipers aren't just the best new band around, they might just be the greatest tunesmiths on the face of the planet. Marrying heartbreaking folk with sunshine dappled psychedelia, The Junipers create a sound that makes your life look like a Super 8 film in the middle of a summer cornfield. Rich, deep, profound layers roll around and split the sky straight down the middle, with the sun erupting and leaving the planets hanging limp. This is a phenomenal long player.
Like all great LPs, this isn't a body of work, more an artistic statement. From start to finish, each song interweaves and pulses. Throbbing with basslines pickpocketed from Macca circa Revolver and sprinkled with honey dipped melodies taken from Brian Wilson from under his fireman's helmet, 'Cut Your Key' is THE in-sound from way, way out.
If you like your pop pure and free of pointless procrastinations, this LP will leave you on your back with a stupidly big grin on your face. Like being knocked out and in-love at the same time. Mortimer, Already Home, Sheena, Out My Pocket, ... all hang in the vapours of jet-planes waiting to glide to Earth. Where most 60s influenced bands aim low with punk and folk, easily recreating the sounds and production, The Junipers go for something much more difficult - Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. So off to Pepperland they went, and instead of merely coming back with a postcard, The Junipers clearly stole the blueprints and a few alterations later, emerged with probably the most distinguished and fabulous debut album ever made.
Musos will thrill at the inclusion of sitars, mellotrons, organs, kazoos, piano, strings, fuzz guitar, kitchen sinks (and more) in the tapestry of sound. Pop fans will faint at the glorious songs, providing them with THE soundtrack to the summer. There's no question that this is an LP that absolutely everyone should own. It's a perfect jeweled masterpiece that deserves to top every chart ever made. I can't stop being excited about it. Buy this album now. You'll be telling your mates all about the best band in the world right now after half a listen. This is an album that can only be topped by another Junipers LP. This is the album of 2008. Absolute perfection.
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SUMMER SUNDAE FESTIVAL REVIEW September 2006
Leicester based 5-piece outfit the Junipers sound is something of a chill pill, like having a head massage lying upside down. The Junipers will sing you a lullaby.. They said "we play psychedelic pop tunes that will hopefully make people think of the Sun or the countryside. We like to pay more attention to our instruments when on stage, rather than pretending we're rock n roll stars".
AMERICANA ALBUM REVIEW Sept 2008
Leicester studio prodigies summon some cloud-dappled sunshine (7 out of 10)
Although now bolstered by a full band for a forthcoming live onslaught, Leicester’s The Junipers are a duo of home-studio geniuses with a tellingly impressive record collection and if there’s any justice, a rather bright future.
Included within the myriad of sounds they cram onto this concisely crafted album there are definite nods to pastoral folk (‘Fly the Yellow Flag’), country-edged pop (Already Home’), summery psychedlia, and knowingly retro (mainly 60s and Beatle-esque) pop aesthetics (‘Song That Fades Away’, ‘Gordie Can’t Swim’). Featuring a cornucopia of instruments throughout their many brief, sharp, pop journeys, the Junipers have a sound that is naturally textured, warm and mostly quite captivating.
The intriguing and genuinely sad opening song ‘Gordie Can’t Swim’ is a truly superb early highlight, sketching out the troubled life and untimely death of a friend. Held up by a fine and simple melody which naturally weaves into lilting ghosts of harmony and a suitably uncertain, evocative end. Complimented by strings, echoes and a beautiful sense of space, it’s so completely perfect in its execution, the ‘repeat’ button on your CD player may well be needed numerous times at this point.
Vocally and melodically, the Elliot Smith folk-inflections give proceedings a familiar air, and while its true that sometimes, as with much folk-inspired musings, the ‘twee-o-meter’ can reach an all too high scoring (‘Sheena’ being the prime offender), by cramming 15 tracks into a brief 36 minutes nothing on here truly outstays its welcome.
‘Cut Your Key’ ably displays two fervently fertile and inspired imaginations with a world of wonderful sound at their disposal.
SHINDIG MAGAZINE ALBUM REVIEW September 2008
Maybe a year and a half ago, The Junipers wandered out of 1967 and affiliated themselves with the great stable of bands based around London's Redbricks club night. Unlike a lot of modern bands that tip their hat to late sixties psychedelia, The Junipers decided that songs and melodies were more important than getting the right haircuts and sitting around pretending they lived in Laurel Canyon.
On this, their debut album, the band have merged a melodic touch that really is second to none, with a refreshingly timeless production; taking inspiration from the golden era of recording, but never laboriously emulating. It sounds like it could have been recorded on tape, but to be honest who cares when the songs are this great? Imagine Curt Boettcher and Brian Wilson double teaming McCartney's Ram and you wouldn't be far off. Nowhere near enough bands sound like prime Harry Nilsson nowadays.
POWERPOPAHOLIC ALBUM REVIEW Nov 2008
The Junipers are a group of friends in Leicester who make, upbeat, chiming pitch perfect baroque and psychedelic pop with echoes of early Bee Gees, The Curiosity Shop and The Zombies. If you are looking for big loud electric guitar riffs, they are not here, but everything else is. Especially that McCartney baseline driven song structure. "Gordie Can't Swim" opens with a Beatles meets Elephant Six collective retro sound, full of hooks that stick and harmonies that float along the melody. This sets the tone for the album, and despite a few slow instrumental breaks - it's brilliant in every way. "Fly The Yellow Kite" is a shimmering pop confection that resembles a Wondermints composition. "Already Home" uses a Monkees-like country vibe with those impressive basslines and harmonies to great effect here and it's a awesome pop song. Using a collection of instruments from of sitars, mellatrons, organs, kazoos, piano, strings, fuzz guitar will have fans of sunshine dappled psyche pop doing backflips. "Out of My Pocket" is adds a dash of prog organ to an acoustic guitar melody and, and "Sheena" is a very Wackers-like folk pop gem. Another standout is the Genesis-Klaatu beauty called "Song That Fades Away" with a sweet harpsichord solo in the middle. Other straight pop songs here "Mortimer" and "Sunnydown Avenue" resemble The Hudson Brothers in sound and spirit. The albums quieter moments concentrates on piano and gentle folk guitar similar to Elliot Smith. If you don't enjoy the retro-psyche pop genre then you should pass on this, however fans of Andrew Sandoval, The Pillbugs, and "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" will gobble this one up. There are so many layers of impressive instrumentation and arrangements here I'm letting this one into the top ten of 2008. Again, no filler on this impressive debut, and I've added two tracks to the Lala player on the right for you to hear.
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SHINDIG MAGAZINE BAND REVIEW November 2007
The Junipers play a buoyant form of jangly, harmony laden pop, & they excel at what they do, producing very believable, honest songs that you will all love. Bendy, intelligent & ready made for psych heads. Brilliant. Connected side project Monkberry Momma dispense with the folkish jangle & offer gentle lysergic pop, name checking the fluffy 70's kids cartoon Dr Snuggles.
NET RHYTHMS ALBUM REVIEW August 2008
The West Midands based label's second signing after Scott Matthews. This The Junipers debut album, is packed with rather lovely soft psychedelic folk-pop like the summery lolloping Fly The Yellow Kite, the Sgt Pepper influences evident on Gordie Can't Swim and Mortimer and, for real psych-pop devotees, the spangly joys of Mark (Teenage Opera) Wirtz, Terry Melcher and Curt Boettcher to be heard buzzing around Song That Fades Away, Callooh Callay and the psychedelia carousel ride of Little May Rose.
Elsewhere, Already Home shows a jangly jogging country element, Sheena is pure CS&N West Coast shimmering pop while the title track is Simon & Garfunkel folkie and Sunnydown Ave suggests a lost collaboration between Brian Wilson and McCartney. They're definitely a gin and tonic.
MP3 HUGGER ONLINE MAG January 2007
Throw the Monkees, Mike Batt, Salako & the Unicorns into a Fisher Price blender. Leave the mixture in the sun for 3 long summer days and consume at will until life feels like one long walk down a white sandy beach in the lego forest. Because that's where the Junipers come from, a colourful land of smiley happy faces and oversized colourful flowers. Together they are constructing the Junipers debut album for a summer release. Expect sunny harmonies aplenty that lend an appreciative eye on faultless sixties chorus'. 'Pearly Home' with its jangling chords, sucrose vocals and chords pulled from a broken heart is pop perfection treated to a twist of psychedelia. Is that your teeth tingling?
ELECTRIC ROULETTE LIVE REVIEW May 2008
Leaving the house on a confusingly pleasant evening, I met up with the super cool people also bracing themselves for quite possibly the greatest gig Manchester will see this year, and sat down in the sumptuous surroundings of The Deaf Institute near the BBC in Manchester. Expectations were high as The Junipers' 'Cut Your Key' LP has now become firmly lodged in my psyche as The Best Debut Album Ever Made. Also, I'd seen John Stammers on numerous occasions and he's always cookin' with the good stuff. Metaphorically, my pen hovered for dishing up a kicking...
I caught up with The Junipers before they played their set and talked about the review I'd done, as well as covering should varied topics as Harold Shipman, Mark Wirtz's 'Grocer Jack', recording techniques (Jeez, I can be one dull fugger), knee-high fur trimmed boots and nerves. The Junipers are clearly a buncha misfits who source crude power from nervous energy and talkin' complete nonsense. As a result, I like this band more and more by the second. After some more chat, they ambled on-stage, and for a second, I completely forgot why I was there. From being these lads snorting with laughter and taking the piss outta each other, they transformed into the psychedelic council of toy town.
With the LP being such a rich weave of sounds, it seemed unlikely that they would be able to recreate with five musicians. However, somehow they did. All striking impressive figures on-stage, they summoned some false God, right there in the room. It stopped being a fun night out into something more other-worldly and trippy. Three part harmonies shimmered over delicate acoustic, while the keys, bass and drums provided solid psychedelic pop sounds, that left me feeling a bit pointless. I mean, man, I'm jus' some bozo who likes music... these people are music... and not jus' any ol' tat. The Junipers are the best band on the planet right now. I even stood up at the close of their final song to shout it to everyone in a foolish fit of peak. They look good and sound even better.
