Still Unravished - A Tribute to the June Brides
Fabulous compilation of cover versions of June Brides songs issued by yesboyicecream records.
Manic Street Preachers -- The Instrumental
The Positions -- Every Conversation
Lovejoy -- In the Rain
The Starlets -- Sunday to Saturday
The Projects -- Heard You Whisper
Television Personalities -- I Fall
House of Mexico -- Sick, Tired and Drunk
The Mad Scene -- No Place called Home
Postal Blue -- Josef's Gone
How to Swim -- On the Rocks
Bunny Grunt -- We Belong
T ompaulin -- Heard You Whisper
The Legend! -- This Town
Jeff Lewis -- Waiting for a Change
The Tyde -- Pound for Pound
Jasmine Minks -- The Instrumental
Reviews:
Manics, Jasmine Minks, Television Personalities et al pay homage to C86 darlings.
The very existence of this tribute says much about the affection which > surrounds short-lived '80s indie heroes The June Brides. Of the 15 bands paying their respects, Manic Street Preachers are not only the most prolific but the most successful, honouring the simplicity of "The Instrumental" while granting it an epic piano gloss of their own invention. Sadly, none of the other tracks are in the same league. The Legend's painful attempt at "This Town", the June Brides '86 swansongsingle is typical of an album of underachieving indie homages to indie underachievement.A severe case of two wrongs not making a right.
Uncut Magazine (and they had it as the worst album of the month....grrrr).
Last in the queue to be rediscovered, The June Brides had a brief but magical reign in the mid-1980s and were very much the darlings of the indie set. Fronted by talented songwriter Phil Wilson, they never released that much (a few singles and a sole album) but they were once Morrissey's favourite band and are constantly name-checked by Primal Scream, Manic Street Preachers and Belle and Sebastian. This tribute album more than does justice to their edgy but melodic pop - The Manics weigh in with a thundering version of The Instrumental, while The Positions work wonders with the beautiful Every Conversation. You may not have heard of many of the bands covering the songs here, but no matter. What stands out is the great indie inventiveness of a band that have been criminally ignored for way too long. Now can we have the reunion tour, please?
Brian Boyd (The Irish Times)
Tribute records are a tricky thing to pull off: too similar to the originals and it sounds like respectful karaoke, too different and you lose the connection. It’s especially difficult when Cherry Red have just compiled a double album of all the best June Brides songs. So is this tribute album worth it? The answer’s a defiant yes. For a start, the current interest in the Junies compensates for the relative neglect when they were around in 1984-85. The careering guitars, sweetly downcast vocals and the touch of Stax soul should have made them big fish in the indie pool but the NME pondkeepers put them on the cover one week and to the back of their minds the next. Listening to ‘Still Unravished’ you notice that they have a much imitated sound. The album is a mix of styles, from the heavy (Manic Street Preachers’ ‘The Instrumental’) to the twee (House of Mexico doing ‘Sick, Tired and Drunk’), and a mix of bands from the Jasmine Minks to Jeffrey Lewis. A song as memorable as ‘Every Conversation’ needs a dramatic retelling if it’s not to be a pale copy of the original, so The Positions add ethereal female vocals and wreathe it in synths so that it sounds alike yet unique. Television Personalities, the band that influenced Phil Wilson and Simon Beezley to start their group, turn ‘I Fall’ upside down with treated vocals, melodica and surgical drumming. The two versions of ‘Heard You Whisper’ are both great in their own right: the Projects ladle on the synths and effects in the spirit of the Junies’ trumpet and viola; Tompaulin offer Jamie’s whispery vocals, sawtoothed guitar rhythms and synths fizzing like a stirred up wasp nest. The worst thing on this record is the Legend!’s murder of ‘This Town’. The Legend! is a former generation’s Spinmaster Plantpot, a man who ought to have an ASBO to prevent him approaching a microphone. His singing is as criminal as child porn, and his offence is worse for the damage inflicted on such a great song. As bad as that version is, the karmic balance is restored by the amazing ‘Pound for Pound’ by the Tyde. With its sauntering rhythms and vocals by Darren that echo Phil Wilson’s downbeat worldview, it channels the spirit of the June Brides from 20 years ago; here’s hoping The Tyde add it to their live set. This is a great tribute: songs that stand up in their own right but also take you back to the originals too. Buy it alongside Cherry Red’s compilation to make your own tribute to an unfairly overlooked band.
Ged M (Sounds XP - webzine)