Bluejuice - Head of the Hawk

First published on 24 Sep 2009. Updated on 29 Oct 2009.

Bluejuice - Head of the Hawk The challenge with Bluejuice's albums is this: they write catchy songs (cf: previous singles ‘Vitriol' and ‘The Reductionist') that make for powerful earworms, but they are absolutely formidable live. Head of the Hawk makes a decent fist of capturing their very danceable, vaguely ska-influenced pop, but you know that songs like the bouncy 'Ms Johnston' and '(Ain't) Telling The Truth' would absolutely tear the roof off all but the most structurally-reinforced venues. Oddly enough, it means that songs like the soulful 'We Can Get Around It' work best on the record, while sounding the least like Bluejuice. It's also worth mentioning that the artwork is absolutely superb: kids, don't bother with this downloading nonsense, buy the damn CD if only for the octopus picture. And then go see them live, because you're not going to truly understand the majesty of songs like 'Broken Leg' otherwise.