On their Halloween 2025 release, Flowers For Juno exhume Wednesday 13’s “Morgue Than Words” and resurrect it as something far moodier, denser, and—ironically—more alive than ever. Where the 2006 original was a tongue-in-cheek horror-punk romp, FFJ twist it into a gothic torch song soaked in decay, glamour, and the humid warmth of analog hiss. It’s a transformation that feels both reverent and rebellious, the sort of reconstruction that only a band as scrappy-romantic as Flowers for Juno would dare attempt.
Frontman and producer Benjó James has always thrived in the space where beauty rots and rot becomes beautiful. Here, he leans all the way in. The opening moments hum with a sample of Mozart with VHS-era distortion, as if the track has been pulled from a haunted archive. Then the full band kicks in: Jack Reed’s guitars smeared into a narcotic haze, Mark Crorigan’s bass crawling through the mix like cold fog, and Robert Grayson’s drums pounding with frantic, ceremonial doom. James’ vocals—equal parts vampiric croon and whispered lament—float through the fuzz as if transmitted from the other side of a séance.
This reinterpretation stays lyrically faithful to Wednesday 13’s macabre love song—still gleefully grotesque, still packed with Halloween-store humor—but Flowers for Juno shift its emotional center. The band stretches the song’s camp into melancholy, turning punchlines into pain lines. “You had such beautiful eyes / It’s hard to tell now they’re covered in flies” no longer hits as satire; instead, it feels like a dead-serious elegy delivered through a wall of reverb and regret. It’s goth alchemy—transmuting pulp into poetry.
As producers, Flowers for Juno stick to their manifesto: hide the hooks, bury the shine, and let the imperfections tell the story. The mix buzzes and trembles, like a shoegaze band playing from the bottom of a mausoleum stairwell. And yet, beneath the grit, the pop sensibility remains undeniable. The chorus—“Morgue than words”—blooms like a funereal chant, hypnotic and strangely tender.
Coming off their September EP Nocturntables, this single marks a return that’s both expected and surprising. Expected, because FFJ continue to embrace their lineage: the dreamlike abrasion of My Bloody Valentine, the graveyard sensuality of Type O Negative. Surprising, because they’ve taken a track defined by its kitsch and elevated it to a dark-romantic anthem without losing the wink.
“Morgue Than Words” isn’t just a cover—it’s a reimagining, a reclamation, and a declaration that Flowers for Juno remain one of the underground’s most vital and visionary forces. While others chase polish and gimmick, FFJ chase atmosphere, mood, and the thrill of letting things bleed at the edges.
If the afterlife had a house band, this is what it would sound like.
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