Album Review: Junior – Beautiful Life

What do you get when a professional wrestler and a composer of theme tunes for wrestlers meets a social conscience? The somewhat unexpected answer is Welsh pop punk trio Junior who are set to self release their debut album “Beautiful Life” tomorrow. First let’s unpick that somewhat convoluted riddle, bassist and vocalist Mark Andrews is a professional WWE wrestler whilst guitarist Matt Attard writes the music for wrestlers and their drummer Si Martin runs the mental health non-profit charity Heads Above The Waves, which raises awareness of depression and self-harm in young people.

A choir lulls you into a false sense of security before the opening track “Boys And Girls” kicks in, there are strains of Blink-182 about the sound but this is something grander and more layered and textured than a straightforward reworking of the traditional pop punk formula. Throughout “Beautiful Life” there are touches that are instantly familiar and hint at their roots, but this is a more emotive beast whose tracks that possess an almost cinematic quality. There are also moments that border on straight up punk, albeit with a poppy sheen, tracks like “Day Of the Dead” and “PYD” break the album out of it’s reflective nature without sacrificing the life affirming quality that runs throughout the album.

There is some reflection of the trio’s backgrounds in “Beautiful Life“, there’s the theatrical brutality of wrestling that is combined with a pop sensibility and an underlying theme of positivity, yes you could argue that Junior are another pop punk band, but this is not your run of the mill cookie cutter outfit. “Beautiful Life” is an impressive debut that is an antidote to the predictable pop punks recreating the heyday of a scene that has long since moved on, yes there are significant nods to the bands that broke pop punk to the masses but Junior do it on their terms.

Beautiful Life can be pre-ordered via Junior‘s website here

Heads Above The Waves website is here