When the Howling Bells originally appeared on the scene with their self-titled debut in 2006, they had plenty of stiff competition for attention within the guitar pop world. This was, lest we forget, the time of ‘Landfill Indie,’ as wave upon wave of edgy, arch, angsty and sardonic four or five-piece groups with second hand attitude filled the declining CD store racks with miles of mostly uninspired, generic yelping produce. But Howling Bells always had a little something that pushed them above the general pack, a music that their singer Juanita calls a “kind of narcotic, bluesy, dreampop.” The band had a good initial run of nearly a decade before life and other endeavours took them quietly, although not permanently, out of view. Today the Australian trio, whose relocation to the UK twenty years ago paid such huge dividends in terms of exposure and positive press, still consist of the original core guitar slinging vocalist Juanita Stein, her brother and guitarist Joel Stein with drummer Glenn Moule. Other members came and went over time, but it was always the nucleus at the heart and soul of the music pivotal to their return. Had they not felt that same instinctive connection a fresh project such as this would not have been pursued.
The reignition of their subliminal magic was first felt by all three after taking advantage of a 2021 offer to perform together, for the first time in seven years, marking the 15th anniversary of their debut album. Juanita recalls them feeling a “constant drive to want to take it further, and that’s where I think the commitment lies with us: that we know how much power and beauty arises when the three of us come together.” Working once again with trusted collaborator Ben Hillier, they began shaping fresh song ideas, which started to arrive following this reformation, into a cohesive whole at his Agricultural Audio Studios. And so, in an era where older bands are announcing re-groupings and patching up of old differences on a weekly basis, we now have the return of The Howling Bells. Increasingly I feel that the artists who reform merely for a few live pay days should be sold with a public integrity warning, I have seen too many lukewarm shows by bands transparently only in it for the cash. But this does not apply to every act reunited, there are some who feel inspired by the revived energy of creation. Like John Lennon used to say about The Beatles getting back together, if one of them had a great idea and it felt right, he would do it; no amount of money was ever going to sway him though. It took me one listen to the Howling Bells new piledriving track ‘Sweet Relief’ to feel certain; this is one resurrection fuelled 100% by the best possible motivation.
The album is front loaded with a would-be classic in the lineage of bands opening a record with a song about themselves. ‘Hey Hey, We’re The Monkees’ or even ‘Wilco (The Song)’ this is not, but it does gloriously play into the dynamic and dramatic majesty of the Bells guitar sound, wrapping itself around lyrics that look to the skies as they have “always been lost in the big dream.” When the chorus spectacularly summons a sunburst of light and heat, I am briefly reminded of an earlier combo from Melbourne, Australia called Frente! The beautiful sugary drizzle of that band’s nineties heyday was also armoured by some forceful guitar attack, and it is a joy to feel that same seed repurposed by a current unit embracing the maturity and experience only time can bring. This wisdom has resulted in new songs like ‘Heavy Lifting,’ a spinning wheel of electric six-string momentum that puts entitlement and opportunism to the sword. ‘Sacred Land’ is even edgier, the crunching thrash as disturbed as Juanita is dismayed by the horrors of war and inhumanity.
This record is not all about power and pace; ‘Looking Glass’ floats on a circle of swirling keyboard that carries us into the realms of dreampop. The aching ‘Melbourne’ is an emotional centre point for the entire record, telling the personal story of the Stein siblings father passing and a rushed flight back to London to be by his bedside. The singer remembers, “I had two suitcases, one full of merch, so I was literally carrying so much weight; so much beyond what I could carry on top of the emotion of it. And then, unfortunately, he passed away whilst I was on my way back. So that experience was traumatic, and it felt important for me to tell it, and it felt really important for Joel to play it.” Ultimately, ‘Strange Life’ emerges as a triumphant reawakening for Howling Bells, an album that reignites the glow of their arrival and tempers it with the grit, grace, and momentum of everything life has thrown their way. The result is a union of past fire and present truth that feels both resonant and profoundly satisfying.
Danny Neill
You can get a physical copy of ‘Strange Life’ by The Howling Bells here https://amzn.to/4d0pObt
The track ‘Sweet Relief’ features in our latest hour-long new music mix over on Mixcloud https://www.mixcloud.com/dannyneill714/fruit-tree-records-fresh-juice-2026-vol-2/
Fruit Tree Records 