Just Mustard - We Were Just Here (Purple Vinyl LP)

The third album from the Dundalk five-piece, and their most open and alive record yet. Following 2018's Wednesday and 2022's Heart Under, the band emerge from years on the road with The Cure, Depeche Mode, and Fontaines D.C. sounding bolder and warmer, without losing the darkness at the core of their sound. Self-produced and mixed by David Wrench (FKA Twigs, Frank Ocean), the record pairs their signature walls of warped guitar and industrial percussion with Katie Ball's voice pushed higher in the mix than ever before.

Opener 'Pollyanna' erupts in a squall of feedback, 'Silver' rides a near-motorik pulse, and the title track sits at the centre of the record, a hypnotic, danceable highlight where all the band's old motifs are refracted through colour and melody. Anxiety and release, shadow and light, chaos held under measured control.