Juggling Wolves’ debut album – Review

Alternative rock duo Juggling Wolves’ debut album demonstrates the vast mixture of sounds and influences that the band have. From start to finish, the album continues to surprise and intrigue. Part of this is down to the two members’ previous work, Jimmy Deface has also worked in Rufus Coates & The Blackened Trees and Run From the Cure, and Johno Leader in Radioactive Grandma, and the two have come together to create something different and really genuine. By this, I mean the two men were involved in everything to do with the writing, recording and producing. This authenticity gives the album a huge amount of passion and emotion.

‘Lonely Gold’ is a stand out song with hypnotic guitar and impressive vocals, however the song airs on the long side. Whether or not this is a problem will depend on the individual, however it gets a bit tiresome and you can feel yourself stop paying attention about three quarters of the way through. Single ‘Mercury’ is a smooth and melodic song that has an indie-style guitar riff with a more grunge style twist to the rest of it.

Listen to “Mercury” here:

The album has quite an experimental vibe to it, which in its own right it admirable and exciting, however sometimes it makes the band lack any ‘sound’ of their own. The album is relatively enjoyable, however the songs are a bit disjointed, there’s no real flow. The lack of an exact musical genre can be an incredible attribute if executed correctly, but to do so is incredibly difficult. All in all, the album is worth a listen but it could also be said that the band have a little bit more growing to do. A release that shows lots of promise and potential but it’s just not quite there yet. There’s a sense that the band are indulging in their diverse tastes a little bit too much and in an attempt to stand out and be different, they end up losing identity.

The album will be released and on sale from all the usual digital outlets including iTunes, Spotify, Amazon on 10th December 2014.

Review by Orla Conway