Junior Bill have been here all along. Surveying their world from atop a suburban overpass, or a forlorn back alley, they are the eyes and ears of urban Britain. Their witty provincial tales eulogise forgotten peoples, spin empathic character portraits and tell the everyday stories of contemporary city life.
The tunes themselves are catchy as hell. Pretty playground limericks, Latin melodies and chanted refrains rattle round the skull, distracting you from the often-tragic subtexts of division, decline and gentrification familiar to any British city-dweller. The music is hugely danceable, too. Dubby basslines and concrete grooves underpin a ska-tinged global-local collage of sound. It’s a blend that makes them the natural torch-bearers of a vein of Jamaican-influenced British song writing running from Jerry Dammers to Jamie T.
"Everybody's talking about Junior Bill... a genuine grassroots feel, instantly" - Tom Robinson (BBC 6Music)