The momentum of South London artist Joy Crookes in recent years has been all too well deserved. Her retro-pop/modern soul style has captured listeners with chart-toppers including ‘When You Were Mine’, and my personal favourite ‘Feet Don’t Fail Me Now’. Her newest release of Juniper once again quintessentially highlights Crookes’s talent as a singer-songwriter.
Songs like ‘Perfect Crime’ and ‘I Know You’d Kill’ demonstrate her retro-pop style. Her collaboration with Vince Staples on ‘Pass the Salt’ emphasises her strengths as an artist who is confident with unique beats and sounds. Slightly more laid-back songs like ‘Brave’, ‘Mathematics’ and ‘Mother’ make Juniper an excellent representation of the genres Crookes is capable of.
Recently selling out two nights in Brixton during her album tour, Crookes highlighted a line from her song ‘Two Nights’ which was on her 2019 EP Reminicense, “I spent two nights in K-town, two nights in Brixton”. Emphasising her achievement with the crowd and her roots in Brixton, she presented an electric night. Her stunning vocals and in-between song conversations made it feel like she was friends with everyone in the crowd.
Through her lyricism and soulful melodies, the album takes listeners on a journey of experiences and modern commentary on love, humanity, and womanhood. The song ‘Carmen’, specifically the line “Any God would offer you Heaven, … I wanna be wanted like Carmen”, details a desire as a young girl to look like someone else, a comment on societal beauty standards and developing ideas of womanhood growing up.
Another song of note is the second-to-last track, ‘Forever’, which accentuates what it means to be human through the remembrance of love despite its impossibilities. During her Brixton show, Crookes emphasised a promise she made to herself while writing that she’d dedicate the song to the Free Palestine movement every performance. The song ‘Somebody to You’ further comments on love, highlighting the need for independence within love and relationships.
Comprising songs that might be on a getting-ready playlist or maybe background music for daily life, Juniper is nonetheless a testimony to not only Crookes’s abilities as an artist, but it is also modern sounds alongside modern commentary on womanhood, love and humanity.
Another article you may enjoy: https://thebadgeronline.com/2026/01/cabaret-voltaire-on-the-frontiers-of-the-experimental/
