Review - The Junipers 'Cut Your Key'

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, mellatrons, 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.

Buy The Junipers' 'Cut Your Key' here.

[Mof Gimmers]