(Nov '04) / home / reviews index
My Pet Junkie
- 'When
You're Not Busy' (Riverrun Records)
After four years gigging in and around North London and a whole year
of recording, this trio unleash their debut album. What a strange beast
it is. Among My Pet Junkie’s quirks is the insistence on following
a psychotic-comedy-murder song best described as “rollicking”
with a love song (“I can be disgraceful sometimes”
– ‘Peace Comes Easily’) so tender and sweet it would
not sound out of place in some posh café – among some songs
that plainly rock.
An ability to entertain across all bases might scare the more cautious and those eager to pigeonhole their bands into easy markets, but the quality on the album shows MPJ to be more than the all-purpose novelty band one might book for weddings and bar mitzvahs and not much else.
There are some songs affecting and interesting: the aforementioned ‘Peace Comes Easily’ and the quite stunning ‘When I Am God’, a track you can relax into and hear something new every time. It’s no mean feat for a three-piece band to make this piece of music reminiscent of Radiohead. Of a completely different bent is the short and spiky opener ‘Baked Bean Skins’ – best described as well-produced grungy pop, but with authenticity and sheer fun which that ‘best’ description might not conjure. Another favourite is ‘Lacking in Certainty’, which from the first time I heard it sounded like a radio classic, a humble Smashing Pumpkins, a light burst of melody shot through with appealing doubt: charming harmonies asking insistent questions of the listener, bass and guitar gelling really well. The more lightweight / heavier-sounding ‘Overhanging’ is always guaranteed to please a crowd. Then there is 'Interstellar Conspiracy Theory': "attached sensors to my frontal lobes, prodded me with metal probes..."
With strangely jokey prog moments
also on show, this is a varied album, but an accomplished one. So, 'When
You're Not Busy', a wholly enjoyable listen. At their best, My Pet Junkie
are well worth a shot…
