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Album reviews Music

Junip

JUNIP play the Great Hall June 10. See listing. Rating: NNN


It must be a bit strange for José González to still be most famous for his 2006 solo acoustic cover of the Knife’s synth pop hit Heartbeats. That success led to a surge of interest in his emotionally wrenching minimalist folk music, but also sidelined his post-rock-inspired band Junip until he revived the trio in 2010. Since then, however, he’s clearly focused on playing with the group full-time.

It’s not surprising to find out that Junip do most of their writing through jamming. While there are still connections to the hushed intimacy of González’s solo work, it’s the repetitive grooves and drifty looseness that you notice first. This makes for a relaxed, summery vibe, but too often it feels like they found a pleasant riff and just decided to vamp on it until they got bored. It’s all very easy to listen to, but occasionally too close to easy listening.

Top track: Walking Lightly

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