Why is everyone not going totally bonkers about the junior boys?

I guess I'm going to have to try harder to check these guys out. I tried them once before, and nothing came of it, but I'm smitten over the Dead Horse EP. It all started this morning when I heard my alarm clock go off and on the radio was playing "FM (Tensnake remix)". I was like "wow, what is this?"

Last Exit>>>>>>>>>So this is Goodbye, Bimble. Please retry and repost.

If anything the mix prompted me to buy a couple of Stereo Image tracks. Sounding somewhere between Safety Scissors and Junior Boys.

How involved was Johnny Dark in the making of Last Exit?

you know what's bonkers? this is one of, seriously, 24 threads about junior boys on ilm, lol.

i think they're a band, tho, where i'll probably listen to anything they do as long as they keep making records. like the sea & cake, you know. even if it's mediocre, it's a sound that i find very appealing.

i find it hard to defend certain musical artists who have my aesthetic number, so to speak. i will genuinely stump for last exit and so this is goodbye, tho.

For me the 3 most frustrating albums from the 00s onwards are:

yeah yeah yeahs - its blitz
The rapture - house of jealous lovers
Junior Boys - last exit

I love most of the compositions in those records but hate the way they are mixed. I'm not a producer so I don't know how to describe it properly but it sounds too high on the treble for a dance album. It sounds spike-y, it kind of aches my ears and it frustrates me because with a different, better production I'm sure they'd be amazing

this could be to do with what's known in the industry as "dynamic range compression", or DRC for short. basically they "compress" the dynamic range, and this basically compresses the sound. it's a real "hot topic" among music buffs, and could change the way we listen to music for years to come

It's amazing how well Last Exit holds up 14 (!) years later.

New one is gorgeous. I'm in love with side 2, in particular. AOTY material for me

Really lovely stuff yeah. Their most ambient release by a wide margin but that seems like a very logical space for them to explore. Not sure where it’ll end up in my estimations, but then I only fully fell in love with the last two albums this year, so.

I think this is easily their best album to date.

Tough to beat Last Exit but this one may be a contender, for sure

Also disappointed that this thread title remains sadly apt. Where is everyone?

wow this is sublime

This is absolutely gorgeous. My favourite since So This Is Goodbye. Exactly the kind of album I needed today.

this might be my favourite thing they've ever done

Same, I think.

certified slapper. both perfect for the current Michael mann moment and also its own irreducible thing

can't wait to listen to this.

This is gorgeous. The last track is the standout at the moment. Sounds like We Are King. Junior Boys do quiet storm.

yeah, I'd put this on in the car and three tracks in I'm not sure the car is the right place for it on a sunny beautiful fall day. think I'm going to go switch to earphones and go for a walk with it.

All about side 2 for me. "Dum Audio" through title track just perfection.

ok, better on headphones. I get what they're after but it's really not what I want right now. immediately put on the Cut Copy album from 2020 when this was over.

Freeze Melt is so underrated, imo. I just got shipping notice from Rough Trade so my Junior Boys listening session will still be a few days from now.

amazing how totally immersed i am in this on first listen. beautiful sound sculpture, walking home on a foggy night at like 3 am when your senses are kind of brushing the world around you into blurs of paint and you're sort of not even able to put the words in your head into sequence, they're just fragments, loops of anxiety that as soon as you're aware of them they've already faded, blurred over themselves, incidentally this walk is longer than you remembered as time has been stretched at the quantum level and every block seems to be a repeat of the previous and it's like you're stuck in the liminal space between club and home forever

Beautifully put. This feels like an album whose rep will grow with time, one of those rare releases that will endure after the novelty of "cult band releases new album" wears off, but I've been very wrong about such things before

this shit is indistinguishable from the “lo-fi beats to study to” playlist my kid falls asleep up every night

asleep to

it’s not bad but I’m not sure what elevates it above that kind of intentional audio wallpaper

ha ha you guys

my kid’s lo-fi beats podcast was queued up on spotify and started playing after the first junior boys song. that is what I’ve been listening to. and i thought i was being so acerbic up there but I’m just an idiot lol

i apologize

hahaha

This made for some weird Friday morning commute music and I look forward to playing it next time I can't sleep.

Just because I don't see her name on this thread and in case anyone needs to hear it, Junior Boys' own Jeremy Greenspan has worked on all 3 of Jessy Lanza's albums and they are beautiful. In googling his involvement just now (writing/producing/mixing) I found that they broke up after the second album and "established a new working relationship" for the third. Oddly the back cover of that one says "by Jessy Lanza and Jeremy Greenspan".

let's have an embed. the single's video is the Toronto subway in 1986. a beaut. now i'm proper sleepy gnite

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aic8dgxZls

whatever happened to Johnny dark anyway? That Stereo Image or whatever album sucked. Miss his fucked up El-b by way of timberland beatz

Lmao NA

my favorite Junior Boys bit is the ending of "FM" where the drums get stripped away and it's just this little synth/vocal thing. so I'm really liking this so far

digging the new one a lot. i've been going back through the catalog and "begone dull care" feels slept on to me.

speaking of endings, I never appreciated how glorious the last 2 minutes of "Like a Child" were.

before we’ve completely moved past it:

lol NA

this is kinda like if Air really leaned into their Kraftwerk influences. or something. man that bit midway through the title track hits so hard given how quiet everything is. really nice and yeah it might be their best album but it feels weird to say that since it almost feels like this is a JB side project (but like, in a Dukes of Stratosfear type way)

digging the new one a lot. i've been going back through the catalog and "begone dull care" feels slept on to me.

― Western® with Bacon Flavor

Yeah, I went back to this one last week and enjoyed it a lot. It's not in the same league as the first two which are basically perfect, but it's a beautiful album.

Begone Dull Care is the least-good album and is still great. What a band.

i listened to begone dull care on repeat during a particularly vulnerable month of life so every song on on it is like a great cosmic unfolding to me

the least good junior boys album is so this is goodbye, controversial but true

I have a friend who played the title track repeatedly in the car in 2006, to my dismay.

i'm aware this is kinda kneejerk but tbh this is beautifully produced and all, impressive synth work, but i just. cannot. get past the thin, reedy singing. nails on chalkboard for me. also kinda self serious. jessy lanza has a similar sound but is fun. not for me but i get the appeal.

similar sound partially due to Jeremy Greenspan being co-producer!

the least good junior boys album is so this is goodbye, controversial but true

― flamenco drop (BradNelson)

Woah, that's my favourite. The Equalizer, First Time and especially FM are some of their most beautiful melodies. It's the album that made me fall for them after struggling with Last Exit.

Big Black Coat is their only album that doesn't feel essential. Apart from the title track, the second half is kind of bland. Songs like Baby Don't Hurt Me and Love Is A Fire sound weirdly unfinished.

IMO, It's All True = Last Exit > So This Is Goodbye > Waiting Game (though too early to tell) = Big Black Coat > Begone Dull Care

After listening to this a few dozen times I'm pretty sure it's my personal favorite in the catalog (even if it's not "the best").

It really does work best as a focused listen with no distractions or other stimulation (although something to fuck with your perception before hand doesn't hurt!). Extremely meditative, ruminative and calming.

I think it was Matt DC who once said something around the time of So This is Goodbye that always stuck with me. Paraphrasing here but it was about how you could follow each element as an ever-modulating thread and how no single note was the same. This has that on a whole new level with the 'peripheral', barely perceptible sounds your ears have to "reach" for. The result for me is after so many listens I still find myself able to hone in something I feel like I've never noticed before on every song. Spellbinding stuff!

Great post. I'm impatiently awaiting delivery of the LP release, which has predictably been pushed back a few weeks I guess. Saying I love this one as much as Last Exit feels like a kind of blasphemy, and I'm not ready to go there quite yet, but it's definitely close.

Just took a cold, cloudy morning walk with this, very nice.

I'll pick it up on CD if I see it. An imperfect vinyl pressing of such a quiet record would be annoying.

listening to Last Exit for the first time in like a decade, god damn this sounds like it was made TODAY