Juned

Every Night For You (Up)
by Joshua Brown

By the time the new Juned CD had finished, I was sprawled on the rug in a listless, blissed-out daydream, too content to get up and press STOP or change discs. After a protracted pause, the sound resumed (one of those mini-gems tucked away at the end of a compact disc for the enjoyment of folks who are too lazy to press a button). What’s there is a recorded series of phone calls the band members made to various psychic hotlines, which advertised a free introductory reading. The question for each psychic was “Will Juned be successful?” The consensus reached after scanning the band’s vibrations was that “Yes, Juned will be successful, but not as soon as (they) would like,” and they “must try harder,” and “have a lot of faith.” The frustration that this all-girl quartet feels is echoed in “Possum,” a song that by all rights, should be a radio hit (“Look at me, I’m a wannabe/Just as dumb, dumb as the rest of the world/May not know what’s in front of me, but I know what’s behind/’Cause I’m always a step behind”). There’s ugly anger and then there’s sexy anger. Juned fall sans doubt within the second category. Every Night For You, the band’s second full-length, a lovely platter of indie beauty-rock with hints of surf, psychedelia, and country, shows their struggle to branch further out into a world about which they have mixed feelings, at best. In that sense, it reads like a diary they’ve chosen to open to those fortunate enough to hear their music, which documents a personal time period for them better than a faulty memory every could. In terms of future success, aside from their obvious need for better promotion, they could use better production as the excellent songs are hampered at times by a two-dimensional sound. With this and, of course, more hard work, they could be kickin’ it with Dionne Warwick, LaToya Jackson and company in no time.