See those happy faces at the start of this post? Those are the six members of
The Just Joans, Scotland's most gloriously miserable pop band. Named after a long-running advice column, they make a point of finding and spotlighting the misery, rejection, and other odd bits of darkness and failure that we can all find in our lives if we really, really focus. And then they wrap it up in a lovely melody and tell the story with wit, heart, and a sharp bite. To no reader's surprise, that is the sort of thing that has placed their work on these pages on several occasions (most recently
here). The band recently released a double A-side single consisting of "Has Anybody Seen My Boy?" and "Who Does Susan Think She Is?" We could describe the songs, but in this case we think the description by The Just Joan's co-founder and lyricist, David Pope, does the job succinctly: "Has Anybody Seen My Boy? is our attempt at writing a lost 60’s girl group track...had that girl group been from Motherwell. 3 minutes of bubblegum-tragi-pop. Flip side Who Does Susan Think She Is? is a direct message to the friends who swanned off to art school and came back 3 months later with dyed hair, a Polaroid camera and a snooty attitude. You know who you are…”
So there you are, terrific weekend angst-pop for the taking in digital and vinyl formats via Fika Recordings. By the way,
The Just Joans are siblings David and Katie Pope,
Chris Elkin,
Fraser Ford,
Doog Cameron, and
Jason Sweeney.
The record's artwork is special as well. It was created by Doreen Kay, who attends a weekly art class run by Katie Pope for adults with learning disabilities.
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