Songs of the year, number 7: Megan Black - Just For Fun

It was Ashley Stein who introduced me to the work of Megan Black. Black, along with Niamh Sunshine, was scheduled to perform at Edinburgh's Women In Music: It's Brutal Out Here event back in April, and Ashley spoke of her when I interviewed her and fellow organiser Gillian Morrison. "She's kind of what I imagine Janis Joplin would have been like to talk to, as a person?" she said, adding that Black was "an incredible artist."

I checked out Megan Black after I'd spoken to Ashley and Gillian, and found that Ashley had not in any way been exaggerating: Black is, indeed, up there with Joplin.

Initially a stand alone single released in November 2022, 'Just For Fun' was re-released in September as part of the flawless Full Circle (Part 1) EP.  It sits well alongside the other tracks on the EP, particularly assertive attention grabbing opening track 'MOTHER. SISTER. LOVER' and the magnificently titled 'Fuck You (You Stole My Youth)'. 'Just For Fun' starts as it means to go on with an impressive opening vocal and insistent guitars. It packs a lot of sound and fury, not to mention impressive vocal and guitar work, into just under three minutes and at the end you'll want to play it again. And again. And again. 

Megan Black - Just For Fun

It was Ashley Stein who introduced me to the music of Megan Black. Speaking of the Scottish songwriter, who performed at Ashley and Gillian's Women In Music: It's Brutal Out Here event last month, Ashley said "She's kind of what I imagine Janis Joplin would have been like to talk to, as a person?" Like La Joplin, Black has clearly been blessed with the kind of knock 'em dead combination of voice and stage presence that comes along all too rarely.

While 'Just For Fun' was released in 2022, it's not included on Black's album of that year, Deadly Is The Woman, which is a shame. A stand alone track that struts like a champion and snarls with style, it serves as a particularly epic calling card for Megan Black. We have certainly not heard the last of her.