Bluejuice Head Of The Hawk

With the colourful onstage antics of vocalists Jake Stone and Stav Yiannoukas, and songs flush with FM pop melodies and rhythms that demand the listener dance, it’s easy to miss the sadness in Bluejuice’s songs. Take, for instance, “Broken Leg”. Inspired by a relationship break-up, it merges grandiose The Who-style keyboards with a pogo-tastic earworm pop chorus while tackling the lows of mental pain, including in the context of life as an artist: “And all these fakes and all these frauds/And you get your leg up and the big supports/I’m drowning, I’m drowning”. Similarly, “Ain’t Telling the Truth” harbours a sense of hopelessness and nihilism amid its peppy stabs of Ben Folds Five-esque piano: “Twenty-seven years it’s a wreck of a life/And I don’t know what to do/I ain’t telling the truth no more”. Produced by Chris Shaw (Weezer, Wilco), Head of the Hawk pulls Bluejuice away from the hip-hop stylings of earlier work in favour of more radio-friendly indie alt-pop, particularly on songs like “Ms. Johnston” and “Work”. The spectre of mental illness still looms, however, as on the frantic “Medication” and its repeated mantra: “Got to get that medication/You’ve got to get that medication”.