5 STAR RATING and IMAGINARY FRIENDS ALBUM REVIEW in SHINDIG! MAGAZINE..

 

From Shindig Magazine October 2024

The Junipers are connoisseurs of classic harmony pop, channeling a myriad of familiar and obscure influences. The fourth album maybe their most fully realised yet. Regular readers will be familiar with singer Robyn Gibson and his Bob Of the Pops sideline covers project, or guitarist Pete Goughs Bite it Deep blog, that deep mines forgotten pop gems from the 60's and 70's. All of this explains what to do expect from a Junipers album.

With a nod to John Carter productions here and a wink to early High Llamas there, The Junipers create a sound that radiates with a warm hazy glow. Songs like 'Monkey On My Back' and 'Annie Almond' are stuffed with tiny little pieces of nostalgic inspiration. The lovely Autumnal folk of 'Red Song' recalls Elliott Smith at his most wistful. 

If you like melancholic harmony-pop with Toytown psych flourishes, The Junipers are sweet medicine for the soul. 

PAINT THE GROUND ALBUM REVIEW in SHINDIG MAGAZINE...

 

Where folk and country rock collide with pops soft mesh and shades of the psychedelic, this is where you'll find Paint the Grounds main aspects. Originally a 2012 download affair, this album is a thing of beauty with natural echoes of the modern pastoral in abundance; of meadows soaking up summer rays, of footfalls traipsing through the changing seasons, of shadows lengthening outside tabernacle homes.

Shimmering six and 12-strings and dreaming harmonies are joined occasionally by softly buzzing jaws harp, mellotron and zither, creating a panoply of bliss filled vistas that evoke such disparate, wide eyed spirits as 'Diamond Dew' era Gorky's, Peruvian McCartney worshipers We All Together and, somewhat quizzically, the languid haze of early Ride.

'Willow and the Water Mill', the panoramic glide of 'Antler Season' and joyously sparkling opener 'Look Into My River' are but a few of the goose bump-causing highlights on offer.