The juxtaposition of the fragility shown in these tracks with the menace of “Wee Guys (Bobby’s Got A Punctured Lung)” – an observation and understanding of the casual violence that once cast a shadow over the band’s hometown – highlights The Just Joans’ ability to seamlessly flip between sensitivity and danger, and sums up why Highway Queens described them as the “perfect Glasgow kiss.” The Private Memoirs and Confessions of the Just Joans is a veritable smorgasbord of misery, longing and unrequited love; stories of small town resentments, half-forgotten school friends, failing relationships and awkward workplace conversations. As David explains: “It’s a collection torn from the pages of the diary I haven’t kept over the past 25 years. There are songs about places and people I vaguely remember, feelings I think that I once may have felt and the onset of middle-aged ennui.” Despite entering new territory with the addition of brass and strings, they have nevertheless maintained the DIY ethos that made them darlings of the underground indie-pop scene, with each song on the album recorded and produced by the band in various gloomy bedrooms around Glasgow. “The Just Joans have documented the romantic pratfalls of a generation of indie kids with a sardonic wit and a shambling musical style where Stephin Merritt lies down with The Vaselines”
TRACK LISTING
A1) Hey Ho, Let’s Not Go
A2) Who Does Susan Think She Is?
A3) Wee Guys (Bobby’s Got A Punctured Lung)
A4) My Undying Love For You Is Beginning To Die
A5) When Nietzsche Calls
B1) The Older I Get, The More I Don’t Know
B2) The One I Loathe The Least
B3) Another Doomed Relationship
B4) Holiday
B5) People I Once Knew
B6) Like Yesterday Again