The Just Joans are a band from Motherwell. The Just Joans are a band that is definitely at the twee end of the indie pop spectrum. Motherwell is not the kind of place where you would think that such music could survive. Vermont? Yes. Most of Sweden? Undoubtedly. But Motherwell?
Maybe it is that spirit of facing adversity - Motherwell has hosted the annual adversity games for the last couple of decades - that keeps this band fresh. Their songs, and we get nine of them on this album, are testaments to the many joys of failed relationships. Not the glossy celebrity car crashes that we are bombarded with in the press but those trivial to the rest of the world but devastating to one of the parties involved kind of relationships. Losers in love, if you like, but not beaten by it all. "Hideous Accidents" indeed suggests that being a loser in love is one thing but liking it is quite another and the female viewpoint gets investigated in "Let's Keep in Touch". Infused with dry humour, these songs soon win a place in your affection even if you will never admit just how relevant they actually are to you.
Maybe it's time for a confession. This Bluesbunny knows only too well the experience of being rejected by the opposite sex. Little did I know that there is a secret to avoid that sinking feeling of going home alone. That secret? Chicken pakora. No woman can resist a man who can still afford hot (and deluxe) snack food on the way home. Tested scientifically in Motherwell, Hamilton, Bellshill, Coatbridge, Airdrie…