Flowers For Juno – The Rite Of Spring

Flowers For Juno – The Rite Of Spring – EP Review

Flowers For Juno…if you don’t know the name by now, have you not been keeping up with our posts lately?  We’ve been takin’ the ol’ deep dive in reviewing singles like “Dolphin Girl” and “I go to strip clubs but just for the music” this month, and now we’re talkin’ about the full six-track EP FFJ just put out before May’s over.  So if you don’t know the name of Flowers For Juno by now, it’s clearly not our fault.  We’ve been listening…we’ve been telling you the reasons why you should be listening…and so…are you?

I will say this upfront…I did feel like The Rite Of Spring somewhat draws a line in the sand as far as where this band is going to fit out there in the music scene, and where it won’t.  Flowers For Juno is no stranger to controversy, which is a good thing…because I’d imagine they’re going to get challenged a fair bit on songs like “Buckcherry Wrote A Song About Girls Like You.”  What I’m not going to do here, is pretend that I fully understand the context of the lyricism in a song like this – but I do know that we practically never have the context to the majority of songs we hear on any given day, and that we can really only judge things on the surface level of how we interpret them.  So with respect to that, obviously there is lyrical content in “Buckcherry Wrote A Song About Girls Like You” that, whether factual or fictional, is shocking to say the least…like, lines I’m choosing not to quote type-stuff.  The question becomes whether or not Benjó James is making a larger point, being shocking for the sake of being shocking, or being completely straight ahead with his observations – and none of us living outside of his head could possibly know for sure.  Ultimately I’m cool with controversial and polarizing tunes…say what you want to say and all that, but of course be ready for the inevitable backlash.  The most positive interpretations of a song like “Buckcherry Wrote A Song About Girls Like You” would be that it’s a cut for the 50 Shades Of Everything crowd.  The least positive interpretations would be…I suppose problematic is the right way to put it.  So this is where I’m talking about the line in the sand being drawn – because make ZERO mistake people – there IS a market & an audience for music like this, and believe it or not, it ain’t small.  You’ll listen to “Buckcherry Wrote A Song About Girls Like You” and learn about yourself as a person, that I can tell ya.  Does Benjó take it too far for most people?  Yes – that’s exactly what I’m saying – he probably does.  What I’m not saying is that it’s not the right move – it absolutely could be.  He could be solidifying his fan-base here by being willing to toss those that don’t get it off his bandwagon forever.  He’s also all but guaranteeing that Flowers For Juno will be thriving in the shadows of the underground scene as well, because you can find success there in places where the mainstream can’t accommodate, and when you put out a track like “Buckcherry Wrote A Song About Girls Like You,” there’s no real going back from that.  People will talk about this song.  People will debate its meanings.  They definitely ain’t gonna be indifferent about it, and nor should they be.  Lest we forget though, Flowers For Juno is right about how “Buckcherry Wrote A Song About Girls Like You” – so if anything, they’re simply revisiting a sexualized subject that continually draws a crowd full of curious listeners that enjoy the sensationalized dangers of the underground erotic realm.  Beyond all the lyrical content, the sound of the music is killer, and though I felt like a couple of Benjó’s lines had a few strange split-second pauses at times that didn’t always feel as fluid as they could be, overall, controversial or not, the first cut creates an engaging start.

I wrote about “I go to strip clubs but just for the music” a couple weeks back – you can click here to read the review on what I had to say about it.  Perspective is such an interesting thing…I’m continually fascinated by how it can change.  Repetition, exposure, experience…all these things matter when you’re listening to a song.  You might think you have an idea of what you like or don’t like about something on those first initial spins, but you can easily overlook something else that you might hear later on, or continue to grow to dig something much more than you ever thought you would when you first heard something.  These things still happen to me!  It’s not like this is my first rodeo either, believe me when I tell you the gray hairs that dominate my face will confirm that for ya.  Anyhow – the point is, I think I might have misjudged the power and pull of “I go to strip clubs but just for the music” when it comes right down to it, and I’m always happy to admit when I’m wrong about something.  At the time I wrote the original review, I felt like the low-down vocals and effects were too excessive…but I didn’t really feel the same way when I was listening to it in the lineup of songs on The Rite Of Spring EP.  This time it felt like it was a better fit somehow, which can be the effect of finding a song the right home and maybe it sounds like it belongs in this lineup where it’s featured second in the set – but it could also simply be that “I go to strip clubs but just for the music” is more familiar to my ears now, and more easily accepted as a result.  I’m not entirely sure which it is, or if that even matters – it just sounds good to me.  The whole way that Flowers For Juno constructs these darkly intense, kaleidoscopic vibes, is seriously stellar.

Having said all that, I’m still convinced that “Dolphin Girl” is both their best song, and most accessible as well.  I wrote about this cut at the start of this month – you can learn more about how I felt about it then by clicking here if you feel so inclined or just like to read about music you can listen to, no pressure.  I love the fact that I still don’t even think I can fully put my finger on all the things I like about this track to explain it in the detail that I feel like it truly deserves…maybe I just don’t have the words & that’s on me.  “Dolphin Girl” is special…and in my humble opinion, it’s probably the best approach that Flowers For Juno could take in creating music that still adheres to the kind of content Benjó wants to create without compromising the vision for their sound or saying what they want to say, yet isn’t nearly as graphic or potentially as divisive as a song like “Buckcherry Wrote A Song About Girls Like You” was.  Like I told ya from the very start, it’s an audible line in the sand that FFJ has chosen to draw…it’ll definitely be interesting to see how people react to that track.  “Dolphin Girl” is still a cohesive cut in terms of fitting into the Flowers For Juno sound, but the content has so much more universal potential than what you’d get from sexually explicit tunes that sound designed for people with rubber suits & a whole lotta masks.  Also, as a side note…I literally had no idea what Benjó was singing in “Dolphin Girl” when I first heard it, but I’ve got the lyrics now, and they’re brilliant!  No joke – it’s one single line, repeated effectively, and it’s easily one of the most addictive parts of this song that I can never get enough of.  “Dolphin Girl” is an objectively great tune that retains FFJ’s underground essence, and broadens their potential audience.

“Strippernaut” is indeed – and this is true – another song.  Is it the track we needed on The Rite Of Spring for it to be considered complete?  No!  Is it the track we deserved for doing something naughty we’ve never been caught for?  Probably!  Look…I’m not here to make a case for being for or against “Strippernaut” – it’s fine.  I don’t know if I’ve heard a less consequential moment in music this year if I’m being honest with ya.  That’s not entirely indifference, but it’s a close enough cousin I suppose.  Every time “Strippernaut” came on, I was feelin’ it…I’d readily admit that to ya.  Would I have missed it if it wasn’t on this record?  No!  I guess that’s all I’m saying.  Only Benjó is gonna know if that’s enough for him as a response to it.  It’s an amusing enough experience for the 1:35 in length that it is – and what else would it need to be beyond that anyway, right?  Flowers For Juno has you fully by the balls here, knowing that if you didn’t like it, it’d still take you just as long to find the remote or cross the room to switch it to the next track.  So take THAT haters – you SIT & LISTEN to your daily dose of “Strippernaut!”  Obviously FFJ isn’t trying to set the world on fire with this track so much as amuse us & lighten things up for a brief moment.  Mission accomplished as far as I’m concerned, it is what it is & it does what it does.

I was today years-old when I learned the term “Novocastrian” – so thank you Benjó!  To be fair to me, I don’t know a damn thing outside of what I like to listen to, so my ignorance is as constant as it is entirely organic…but yeah…I suppose it would help if I lived closer to Flowers For Juno geographically.  I’m way over here in Canada, which while still part of the Commonwealth and such, is still one hell of a long way away from Newcastle, whether you’re thinking of the one in the UK OR Australia, or both, which yes, technically each have “Novocastrian streets” of their own, respectively.  Like I’ve been tellin’ ya, I dig the whole vibe in the sound of Flowers For Juno, so it’s pretty easy for me to like a song that moves like “Crack Den Blues” does…it might not be pushing the record any further from where it’s come, but it’s a testament to the consistency in this project’s whole sound overall.  Benjó sure digs putting his vocals down as low as they can go…which is definitely a choice and one I’m not sure everyone out there would connect with, but those that do will start to appreciate how it’s part of FFJ’s identifiably signature sound.  To some extent, you can hear the potential for Flowers For Juno to expand further into melodies that mine the experimental/atmospheric terrain that The Smiths once did, but like, with the sinister deviance you’d find in something like She Wants Revenge to go along with it.  I dig what I hear in “Crack Den Blues,” and to be honest with ya, I really love how bizarrely poetic it truly is.  I’m not here to lower the street cred of Benjó James by outing him as a poet…but yeah…something like “Crack Den Blues” proves he puts more effort into his lyricism than you might have assumed he was to this point in the EP.  The word selection in this song is gritty, clever & vividly descriptive – and it IS poetic, no matter which way you slice it.  Darkly poetic, but still poetic all the same.  He chooses to keep things simple by designing one verse and uses repetition to assist with that approach, which turns out to be all he needs to retain our attention in full.  The textures and tones that make FFJ great are all where you wanna find’em, now all that’s left for us is to get our asses to our choice of one of two Newcastles, and find us a crack den!

We were somewhat introduced to good ol’ “louisekeeble.jpg” in the lineup of songs on the single for “I go to strip clubs but just for the music” earlier this month, but that was in instrumental form.  Adding a single line of vocals with his penchant for repetition on the official version here for this new EP…I dunno – I don’t think it needed anything else if I’m being entirely honest with ya.  I don’t mind what Benjó has added in, but at the same time, I’m not hearing anything that drastically enhanced anything either.  So to me, it’s one of those things…if you can’t definitively say that what you’re adding to a song makes it any better, then there’s a good chance that what you’d added in is actually taking something away.  I think artists/bands tend to add a lot of extra ingredients to their tunes just out of habit more than out of necessity, but you can hear that in the degree of purpose/intention that comes along with it.  And when that’s absent, you can hear that too, you know what I mean?  Listen to the music of “louisekeeble.jpg” and how everything you’ll hear is played with such extraordinary conviction…it’s all so very purposeful, and we can genuinely hear that in the results.  I’ll give credit to Benjó in the sense that, performance-wise, I think he’s doing what he can with what he’s got…but at the same time, it kind of feels like he’s settled a bit this time around.  Ultimately, it’s the same kind of formula that he approached “Dolphin Girl” with, but it just doesn’t quite work to the same effect here.  I’m into “louisekeeble.jpg” for the music alone, so don’t get it twisted, I’m still listening to this without hesitation…but at the same time, this feels where it’s right to remind Benjó not to settle for anything and to keep pushing his creativity to the limits & beyond.  The music in “louisekeeble.jpg” however, is among the best FFJ has released so far.  As to whether or not we needed the extra bit of the “Scratch My Itch (Intro)” to come along with it…I’ll let you be the judge and jury on that.  I think I felt the same way about the inclusion of that as I did with hearing “Strippernaut” earlier on in the set…it’s amusing enough, but absolutely not essential either.  I continue to believe that Flowers For Juno is testing the waters and scratching the surface of what it’s capable of for the time being, but the true potential of what it can go on to become is being pursued with each new step forward that continues to define the sound and scope of its reach.

Find out more about Flowers For Juno at Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/flowersforjuno

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