Sign In to rate and review
CRITIC REVIEWS
100
After being dubbed a shoegaze band on their 2018 debut album, its industrial yet dreamy follow-up ensures the Dundalk five-piece won’t be put in any boxes at all.
1mo
100
Just Mustard have said they wanted their second album, Heart Under, to make the listener feel like they are driving through a tunnel with the windows down. And on this noisy, wonderfully chaotic record, the band seems to have nailed it.
1mo
90
Just Mustard are a band completely at one with their sound, and with Heart Under they have well and truly mastered the art of atmospheric rock. Not bad going for a second album – not bad at all.
1mo
90
Swampy and tumultuous like a month’s worth of rain.
1mo
90
Admittedly, the decidedly blue atmosphere of Heart Under can be a bit one-note, albeit seldomly. However, it still frequently froths from lips, almost unceasingly, with the type of music you wish more post-punk revivalists, bedroom pop darlings, and even some shoegaze traditionalists would aspire to make more of.
1mo
85
The Irish quintet’s second album, a tornado of distorted dissonance, places them among the vanguard of the British Isles’ ever-crowded post-punk scene.
1mo
80
Just Mustard's second album is an ear-piercing piece of intuitively crafted work.
1mo
80
This album is smoky shoegaze on a more industrial level, with drummer, Shane Maguire, beating an iron staircase with a stick, creating a metallic backbeat that contrasts the beauty of the vocals.
1mo
80
Overall, this is a wonderfully enthralling second album from the Dundalk outfit, that again is a big leap forward from their debut in terms of both its production and songcraft.
1mo
80
An album that offers tangents into frightening corridors, ‘Heart Under’ allows Just Mustard the space to evolve on their own terms. A striking, fantastically original work, this is an album that taps into animalistic emotion.
1mo
80
With gentle vocals and often minimal accompaniment, it’s easy to get lost in the shoegazy aura, but the unconventional guitar croons soon bring you right back to the moment.
1mo
80
Heart Under is an album rooted in anticipation: Just Mustard know it’s the glimmer of danger that’s most enthralling of all.
1mo
80
In many ways, a sense of being underwater permeates this record, in tone and timbre, like The Cocteau Twins taking a dip.
1mo
80
Everything is done in service to the feeling of a song, even more than to its melody, though the hooks take hold in short time. Heart Under beats with uneasy equilibrium.
1mo
80
Nothing about what Just Mustard is doing is all that original per se, but their ability to contort their instruments to sound like otherworldly utensils is truly an anomaly in shoegaze currently. The wicked atmosphere that they’ve crafted across Heart Under is worthy of celebration alone.
1mo
80
Heart Under is a bold step into new sonic territory that they will help to define.
77
The Irish shoegaze band plunges into darkness on its brilliantly textured second album, led by the eerie vocals of Katie Ball.
Disclaimer this album isnt actually just mustard, made of mustard, about mustard or anything like that.
Some impressive (and oppressive) instrumental work while the vocals have character and match the music well enough - in a genre where more often than not they’re maddeningly bland.
an absolutely brilliant and flawless record. their powerful debut album Wednesday announced their unique style of grindgaze. but Heart Under is more than simply a refinement of their sound. they have taken their music to a new level with an organic and purposeful cohesion, a singularity of focus that puts me in mind of Joy Division, Wire, and Portishead.
Katie Ball's vocals are sonic perfection and she has just the right tone and delivery to counter-balance the stridency and harshness of the ... read more
As my first full album from a shoegaze artist, I feel like this shouldn't have been my first full album. It's still great, but there were some pieces that sounded like it didn't try to be shoegaze. Maybe if I listened to more, I wouldn't be as impressed.
For once, I'm gonna start with the lyrics because there's not much to say. A lot of them feel very cryptic for the sake of it, but others capture a very haunting feeling where Just Mustard is at its best. You're not gonna remember them as much ... read more
This album isn't really easy to identify in the crowd of all shoegaze artists and albums, but this does have remarkable highlights such as 23 and especially I Am You, which is easily one of my favorite songs of the year. The first half is noticeably better than the second half, but the album sounds great and there are no real major problems.
Become a Donor
Donor badge, no ads + more benefits.
Donor badge, no ads + more benefits.
Advertisement
Track List
Sign in to comment
Advertisement
Added on: February 23, 2022