Today, Just Mustard – the Dundalk, Ireland-based band of Katie Ball, David Noonan, Mete Kalyoncuoğlu, Rob Clarke, and Shane Maguire have announced their new album WE WERE JUST HERE and shared the surging, late-night indebted title track. WWJH is set for release on October 24 via Partisan Records. WWJH was produced by Just Mustard, mixed by David Wrench (Frank Ocean, FKA Twigs) and recorded at Black Mountain studio, Dundalk.

Across their first two albums – 2018’s Wednesday and their 2022 Partisan debut Heart Under – the band “rode a wave of noise to the front of the shoegaze pack, breaking from the distorted yearning of the genre’s softer acolytes” (Pitchfork). While Just Mustard’s signature elements are still intact on WE WERE JUST HERE—warped guitars, twisted sound design and cavernous low ends—this time, it’s all been channeled into a warmer and more anthemic path. Whereas Heart Under explored themes of grief and longing, the songs here draw from a wide spectrum of emotion and feeling, with characters searching for ecstasy, holding onto love, and grasping for the rush of feeling alive.
On the title-track, Just Mustard repurpose their sound into something that feels distinctly euphoric, whilst having a sense of intensity beneath it all. The core elements remain, Katie Ball’s echoing vocals, guitars chiseled into jagged industrial edges but the outcome is far different. It feels communal, the sound of sweat falling from nightclub ceilings, paired with a trance-like Lynchian disorientation. The track is supported by a video directed by Greg Purcell.
It is emblematic of the sound of WE WERE JUST HERE, an album that reaches for human connection after the beautifully hewn solipsism of 2022’s acclaimed Heart Under. Inspired by club spaces and physical joy, the songs strive for immediacy and feeling.
The announcement follows the dizzying whirr of “POLLYANNA”, released earlier this year alongside the news of a select run of shows in intimate venues, which provide a rare opportunity to experience the band’s enveloping sound in close quarters. The band’s previous album Heart Under received praise from The Independent, Pitchfork, NME, The Daily Telegraph, Loud & Quiet and more. The band subsequently went on a world tour and were handpicked by Robert Smith to support The Cure, as well as performing with Depeche Mode and Fontaines D.C. Stay tuned for more news.