The Junipers' Favourite Psychedelic Tracks

Twenty years in, Leicester’s The Junipers are still making psychedelic pop that sounds like a Saturday morning radio discovery and a dusty record find in a town centre shop. To follow up their brilliant 2024 album, Imaginary Friends, they release their fifth LP, The Solid and the Hollow, on 24 April.

By their own description it ended up as a nostalgia trip of sorts, imagining how they might have approached music as teenagers, when the 60s and indie records they love were still fresh discoveries. 60s garage, 80s neo-psychedelia and early 90s shoegaze all fed into it, pushing them toward a more guitar-led sound than recent albums. They even went back and reworked a song they wrote as teenagers, ‘She Makes the Sun Shine,’ which became a kind of anchor for the whole record. Having heard it, I can tell you it delivers on every one of those influences while sounding completely like itself, which is a harder trick to pull off than it sounds. If you want a way in, their current single ‘When She Turns’ is out now, with ‘In A Maze’ to follow on 4 April.

To mark the release, we asked the band to share the psychedelic tracks that mean the most to them. Mellotrons feature heavily.

The Beatles – Strawberry Fields Forever

Joe: It’s an obvious one but it is probably my favourite track of all time. It’s not like I listen to it all the time nowadays, but when I do it always has an impact. Nobody needs this track breaking down for them of course, but I love its mystery, how it starts out soft and mellow, and ends heavy with a crazy mellotron jam at the end. The whole production, how they spliced together 2 takes in slightly different keys, and actually went with it. The most ambitious single yet, by the biggest band in the world, and they released a mash up of 2 different takes that were in different keys and tempos to one another. But it works and actually makes the track sound weirder and more ethereal, like it wasn’t made by humans. And apparently it still wasn’t to Lennon’s liking because it wasn’t heavy enough. I’d love to hear the version he had in his mind. I’m also a sucker for anything from the 60s and 70s with a mellotron and this song is the reason.

Pink Floyd – See Emily Play

Joe: Like ‘Strawberry Fields,’ this track is a pretty obvious choice but it had such a big impact. I first heard this on Sounds of the 60’s which I’d listen to as a teen religiously every Saturday morning in bed. I’d hear new stuff (to me) all the time and then spend that afternoon hunting the records down in town. To me at the time this was like hearing ‘Strawberry Fields’ mark II. I love the vocals, the melody, the vibe, the singalong chorus, the sped up interlude, those orchestral bits that open the verses, the way Syd sings “tomorrow”! I remember buying that First 3 Singles CD and blasting it out later that day and my Dad just opening my bedroom door and looking at me gone out.

July – My Clown

Joe: I remember the first time I heard this was at one of the Mousetrap nights in London in like 2001 or something. I didn’t know the track, but it was in my head for months afterwards, until me or Pete managed to track it down. To hear a track like this for the first time at full blast in a basement is the perfect introduction. At that time I didn’t know what I was listening to! I knew it would be from 1968 or 69 but it was just so far out, I couldn’t absorb it or work out how this sound had been made. I remember I ordered the CD of the album and it came through the post on a Saturday morning. No one home , and I was blaring this track out on the kitchen CD player, my Dad came home and was just going “what is this?? Far out man!!” all sarcastic. We actually got to support Tom Newman and July in about 2016 which was nice.

Marmalade – Man in a Shop

Robyn: The crystal clear production, those guitars and pop hooks. The works! They play 2 basses on it too, as they did on ‘See the Rain.’ One plays more basic around the root notes, and one is more twangy and melodic like a John Entwhistle bass line. We’re all suckers for the poppier side of psychedelia and this one is a classic of that genre.

Tomorrow – Claramount Lake

Ash: This is right up Ash’s street. A tight, crunchy, funky band performance. Ash’s mum had the single of Tomorrow’s ‘My White Bicycle’ and this was the b-side, so he was introduced to this track early doors.

Honeybus – Under the Silent Tree

Ben says: Would you say Honeybus are psychedelic? I’m terrible with genres and labels.. like it’s just music maaaan! ‘Under the Silent Tree,’ that’s a good one. But yea, Honeybus are a favourite of all of ours and they definitely dabbled in psychedelia and this track also has a mellotron.