Junior Varsity Recalibrates on Ready, a Tight EP Built for the Next Chapter

When Junior Varsity landed on Band To Watch lists last year, the Los Angeles alt-pop group looked like a three-person project on the rise. Since then, the lineup has shifted: vocalist Brooke Danaher is no longer listed as a member, leaving Greg Aram and Zach Michel to carry the project forward as a duo of singer-songwriter-producers. Their latest release, Ready, is the first clear statement of what that reset sounds like.

Last month’s single Radio serves as the EP’s entry point, but the record broadens quickly beyond that track. Across an intro and four additional full songs, Aram and Michel lean into a polished hybrid that feels deliberate rather than nostalgic for nostalgia’s sake: glossy 2010s alt-pop framing with 2000s indie-pop instincts underneath. The hooks are clean, the drums push hard, and the synth layers stay bright without turning weightless.

What keeps the project from feeling narrowed by the personnel change is its vocal casting. Junior Varsity still works the mixed-voice interplay that helped define earlier material, this time through guest appearances from Oxis, Lola Blue, the Teenagers, and Unflirt. Instead of functioning like cameos, those features give the songs different emotional angles and preserve the conversational energy that has long been central to the group’s songwriting.

Ready is billed as Side A, and that framing matters: this plays less like a one-off drop and more like the first half of a larger rollout. In practical terms, it buys Junior Varsity time to establish its post-lineup identity while keeping momentum intact ahead of Side B later this year. If Side A is any indication, the duo isn’t reinventing the project from scratch; they’re tightening its core and making it more portable for where alt-pop sits now.

Ready is out now via Key.