Junto (album)
| Junto | ||||
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| Studio album by Basement Jaxx | ||||
| Released | August 25, 2014 | |||
| Length | 52:22 | |||
| Label | ||||
| Producer | Basement Jaxx | |||
| Basement Jaxx chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Junto | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Aggregate scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 71/100 |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   |
| Clash | 7/10 |
| Drowned in Sound | 7/10 |
| The Los Angeles Times |  |
| Pitchfork | 6.5/10 |
| Paste | 8.4/10 |
| NME | 7/10 |
| PopMatters | 7/10 |
| Rolling Stone | |
| Slant Magazine | |
Junto is the seventh album by English electronic music duo Basement Jaxx, released in August 2014 by record labels Atlantic Jaxx and PIAS. It is the duo's first full-length album since Zephyr in 2009, and was announced on 19 May 2014. The title is taken from the song "Power to the People". The album sees a stylistic return to the duo's house roots and away from the more pop and dance-influenced sound of their previous few records.
The album earned mostly positive reviews upon release, holding an aggregate 71 out of 100 on Metacritic. It reached into the top 30 of the UK Albums Chart, among charting in Australia, Belgium, Ireland, Japan, South Korea and on the United States Billboard charts. Junto spawned five singles, which were "Back 2 the Wild", "What a Difference Your Love Makes", "Unicorn", "Never Say Never" and "Galactical", with "Never Say Never" being a topper of the US Hot Dance Club Songs chart.
Simon Ratcliffe claimed that they were going for a positive, bright, uplifting and "sort of hopeful" feel with Junto, departing from the darker tone they had on their previous record Zephyr. He reasoned that:
"We were feeling a bit claustrophobic somehow. We had a break. We did a couple of movie scores and some other things—which was really healthy. We had an orchestral performance of our music in Europe and London. There were solo projects. It was good. In the studios where we recorded Junto, there were windows and a view of the city and sky. We felt a bit energized. The general musical landscape has shifted, and it's come back around to where we were twenty years ago in a way. We felt comfortable in the world so we thought, "Let's just have some fun and make something we can DJ to start". It'd been a while since we were making tracks we actually wanted to play out. That was important. They're tracks our friends can put on at a barbecue. It's feel-good and sunny."
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Wikipedia