3voor12 Review

The wonderful appetizer we received in 2007, when Junior Eats Alone's four-song albumpreview appeared, had whettened our appetite and given us great expectations. The recently released album: Love Will Slow Me Down is even more than we thought it would be.

The fourteen-track album is shaped like a restaurant. The tracklist is the menu (including entrees, main courses, desserts and wines) and the duration of the songs is the price of the platter in euro's. The bandmembers have different jobs (singer Ronnie Verton is the chef) and the cd is sold with a couple of toothpicks and some salt and pepper. The visual aspect of this album is very well taken care of and everything looks perfect.

Fortunately, an equal amount of care and attention was spent on the musical part of this album. Without any exceptions, all the songs are of a very high standard with 'Heal Me', 'Even Though' and 'Love Will Slow Me Down' as highlights.
Junior's music is often compared to the likes of Dave Matthews Band and Radiohead, and rightfully so, but somehow these comparisons don't quite say it all. The melancholic guitar-pop, which is probably the best way to describe it, switches from very fragile pop to very strong guitar-rock. Somehow, Junior Eats Alone never forgets to sound like Junior Eats Alone.

One of the special things about Junior Eats Alone is their brass-section. Henri de Mooij (trumpet), Daniel Follman (trombone) en Robert Bakker (saxophone) put that extra bit of shine into those songs. For that matter, it is a shame that the song 'Before I Awake' that was on the album preview, didn't make it onto Love Will Slow Me Down.