Music Week senior staff writer Ben Homewood on Just Mustard's Seven.
Of all of the lessons learned by the music industry in 2019, the enduring power of meaningful new music made using guitars might be the most valuable. Debate about the relevance of bands will blather on, but the varying and diverse levels of success enjoyed by The 1975, Idles, Fontaines DC, Amyl And The Sniffers and more proved their potency.
Adding weight to that argument in 2020 are Dundalk’s Just Mustard. The five-piece are signed, for the moment at least, to Pizza Pizza Records, an independent label based in their Irish hometown. They already have an album under their belts, 2018’s Wednesday, and begin the New Year with a buzzy London show this week. The hype around their melodic noise has been rising steadily, aided by shout-outs from Fontaines DC. They use light and shade to similar effect: guitars flail and crunch, coaxed from dark recesses into the open by vocalist Katie Ball.
Last week, Wolf Alice bassist Theo Ellis tweeted saying he missed his own band. Well, Theo, Just Mustard can ease your pain. Many of Ball’s lyrics are inspired by dreams, and in tracks such as Seven, Boo, Frank, Curtains and Pigs, her band have hit upon a special formula.
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