“I don’t wanna go where I can’t feel a thing,” pines Just Mustard frontwoman Katie Ball on ‘Dreamer’, the intricate and skittering track at the heart of the forever-rising Irish indie kids’ third album. “I just wanna make it feel good.”
From their shoegaze-leaning lowkey 2018 debut ‘Wednesday’ to the more industrial yet kaleidoscopic breakthrough-threatening 2022 follow-up ‘Heart Under’, the Dundalk five-piece have traded in a genre haze that lands somewhere around ‘noise rock’ but always dabbles in darkness. This time, they’re looking for something more.
Always a gut-punch hidden in an enigma, they’ve found fans in and support slots with their globe-conquering countrymen Fontaines D.C. and gothfathers themselves The Cure – being hand-picked for their South American trek in 2023 and a few of their massive outdoor UK and European gigs next summer (a feat that inspired fellow Irish dark darlings NewDad). It seems Robert Smith’s knack for a bittersweet noir banger and that time spent on bigger stages have bled into ‘We Were Just Here’.
Opener ‘Pollyanna’ (that’s a personality type characterised by irrepressible optimism, dictionary fans) erupts like My Bloody Valentine coming up on a pinger, before ‘Endless Deathless’ sets a howling guitar inferno to a thoroughly danceable beat. The drumgasms of ‘That I Might Not See’ and ‘Silver’ make the most of producer David Wrench (FKA Twigs, Frank Ocean, Sampha), with his knack for arty rhythms and turning up the weird running throughout the record. It’s happiness, Jim, but not as we know it.
The title track and true album highlight fuses krautrock and dreampop for a real synthy surprise, while ‘Somewhere’ and ‘Dandelion’ skip through the depths with a lightness of touch that never allows the band to wallow. That’s saved sadly for ‘The Steps’, something of a moment to breathe, but that just never comes to much. It’s a seldom lull on an album reaching skyward, quite literally on the woozy trip-hop of ‘Out Of Heaven’.
Album number three from Just Mustard is a more three-dimensional, glorious noise – reaching for euphoria while capturing the rollercoaster of comedowns and the spaces in between; driving melody through the malaise on a psych-driven neon bullet train. This time, there’s light on the horizon, a once blackened sky now awash with bleach. It’s a blinding effort, full of feeling and perfect for goths twitching to lurk in the shadows of the dancefloor.
Details
- Record label: Partisan
- Release date: October 24, 2025
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