Have a listen to Cardiff trio Junior and it doesn’t take long to pick up on who they sound like. Throughout their mini-album ‘JuniorLand’, the unmistakable sound of post-hiatus Blink 182 manages to worm its way through, but don’t be put off by that. While California’s former pop punk princes began to show their fatigue in their later material, Junior have only taken the best bits and galvanised that sound completely.

While they may describe themselves as pop punk, it’s very loose. There are definitely elements of it peppered throughout ‘JuniorLand’ – a concept album concerning the titular town – there’s much more on the go in tandem. Opener ‘A House That’s Not Quite Home’ and ‘Anywhere But Here’ display an epic, dramatic flair that would be absent in a typical pop punk band’s arsenal, and ‘Lakeside’ shows they know their way around a tender acoustic ballad.

There are some instances where the sound feels a bit all over the place (the speed-addled ‘If I Had The Time I’d Tell You’ especially) and interspersed vocal samples feel a little schlocky, but overall, there’s definitely something about Junior that’s too promising to be ignored.

3.5/5

‘JuniorLand’ by Junior is released on 16th October on Ambition Records.

Junior links: Facebook|Twitter|Bandcamp

Words by Luke Nuttall (@nuttall_luke)