Joanna Gruesome - Peanut Butter FLAC album

Liked their 1st record a lot, so when I saw this one in the bargain bin at my local record shop, it was a no-brainer to take the plunge. Sadly, it doesn't really match up to its predecessor in melody, vitality or fun, but there are enough good songs to make it a worthwhile buy!

To my ears, the second side is where this LP finally finds its feet. Losing some of the rawness of their debut, the sound is unremarkable if you have any grounding in 80's / 90's guitar pop, and too many songs fly past without leaving any deep impression, the riffs overly familiar and predictable.

The quality of both melodies and riffs lifts on the second side, and at last some good songwriting and arranging rears its head, phew!

If indeed it’s true, it’s hard to believe that the five members of Joanna Gruesome met on a wine tasting holiday such is the sheer ramshackle and unrefined nature of their sound; one infinitely more suited to sticky-floored underground dive bars than the bright, sprawling expanses of the Napa Valley.

The follow up to 2013 debut Weird Sister, Peanut Butter finds the Cardiff quintet channelling their love of My Bloody Valentine, riot grrrl and C86 indie into an album described by guitarist George Nicholls as being about “radical politics, fancying people and espionage.”

Produced by Hookworms’ MJ, the 25-minute-long album does indeed find the group being as playful as ever with their lyrical themes, opening with Last Year, a frantic two-minute treatise on pizza, personal tragedy and abandoned waterparks.

Jamie (Luvver), meanwhile, dissects the vagaries of queer literature and Welsh public transport, while album highlight Honestly Do Yr Worst extols the joys of peanut butter spread through singer Alanna McArdle who has the transformative power to switch from delicate crooner to sawdust-spitting frontwoman in a split second.

Psykick Espionage goes one step further, addressing themes of telepathy, the occult and avocados, while album closer Hey! I Wanna Be Yr Best Friend is a slow and scuzzy tale of youthful nostalgia that wraps up the album with a wonderfully skewed Thin Lizzy-inspired riff.

Although Peanut Butter finds Joanna Gruesome smoothing out some of the rough edges of their previous releases – including excellent split singles with Bristol’s Trust Fund and New York’s Perfect Pussy – at no point do they run the risk of treading the traditional indie tropes they presumably set out to destroy in the first place.

Abrasive and celebratory in equal measure, the group’s hyper-melodic pop shows no signs of abating, and on this evidence there is no doubt that Joanna Gruesome are rapidly transcending their DIY niche while staying true to its punk ethos.