Consider Jura an eccentric early Christmas present. Recorded on a boggy, sparsely populated Scottish island of the same name, this limited-edition Black Friday Record Store Day LP came out of a collaboration between British cowpunks Mekons and American alt-country singer Robbie Fulks, who toured the UK together last year. The sound is organic, misty, foggy and unusual. Mekons’ Lu Edmonds plays the droney saz, while the rest play standard-fare instruments like guitar, violin and accordion.
The songs feel local and mythological, as if found in old pubs or seaside cottages rather than created, but in fact only one (closer Go From My Window) is a reworked traditional. Boats, fish and sailors figure in homemade sea shanties, while drinking songs walk the line, crookedly, between good and sad times. You’ll want to let the whole record play, but Refill, Land Ahoy! and Mekons’ anthemic Beaten And Broken (sung by Fulks) are highlights.
If you can get your hands on it, the vinyl has funny liner notes by Fulks about perma-damp laundry – and drinking.
Top track: Beaten And Broken
