Review: Juniore - Magnifique

If you're going to give your album a title like Magnifique, you'd better be sure it lives up to the name.

No such worries for Juniore for their debut UK album, a delicious ten inch collection of eight tracks that takes classic French yéyé pop into some strange and interesting places.

Imagine the scene in an imaginary Dario Argento movie, where the characters stumble into a freaky late 60s night club, and the band are playing some fierce garage pop on stage. Juniore would probably be that band.

Magnifique sounds like Juniore were raised on 60s French pop but gradually got interested in vintage spooky films before distilling these interests together into songs.  There is of course a French sensibility to the work, with a feeling of poetic melancholy and nostalgia hovering like a mist of dry ice, but it works surprisingly well. For all its possible gothic connotations, it's a fun and hugely enjoyable collection.

Juniore have been around since 2013, and released their French debut Ouh là là in 2017 following a string of singles, an EP and a compilation. The band centres on singer/songwriter Anna-Jean, with Swanny Elzingre, Laure Weisdorf, and a shrouded bass player known only as Le Chose (the Thing).

Magnifique is released on Outré on July 7. They're playing in the UK at the end of the month, with dates at Sebright Arms in London on July 25, The Crofters Rights in Bristol on July 26 and Bitch Craft in Brighton on July 27.