This song's grown on me a lot. Also, count me as a fan of Begone Dull Care, definitely worth checking out IMO.
― Simon H. Shit (Simon H.), Thursday, 17 March 2011 06:16 (thirteen years ago) link
i too love Begone Dull Care.
― jed_, Thursday, 17 March 2011 12:04 (thirteen years ago) link
I don't think Begone Dull Care is particularly inferior to So This Is Goodbye, although neither of them come close to Last Exit for me.
― Matt DC, Thursday, 17 March 2011 12:07 (thirteen years ago) link
Quick ranky rank: So This Is Goodbye > Last Exit >> Begone Dull Care
Begone Dull Care is always a better album while I'm playing it, but I'm not often drawn to hear it unless I make an effort.
― Johnny Fever, Thursday, 17 March 2011 12:09 (thirteen years ago) link
its more LE>>>BDC>STIG
― plax (ico), Thursday, 17 March 2011 12:20 (thirteen years ago) link
For me, they will never ever top Last Exit, mostly because Johnny Dark isn't in the band anymore and his contributions were a large part of what initially made me a fan. That album is a true one off. I was disappointed with STIG bar "Like a Child" and "Double Shadow", but Begone Dull Care was pretty lovely so I'm excited about the new one.
― Touch of Death, Thursday, 17 March 2011 12:44 (thirteen years ago) link
The cover image is a closeup of the UK pavilion from the 2010 Expo in Shangai. It is indeed pretty hideoushttp://images.travelpod.com/users/tungandmathur/1.1282944455.shanghai-expo-uk-pavillion.jpg
― Number None, Thursday, 17 March 2011 12:46 (thirteen years ago) link
Can't stand the exterior, but the interior is pretty badass (granted, in a hideous way).http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lhi5566ZTE1qht88xo1_400.jpg
― Fetchboy, Thursday, 17 March 2011 12:48 (thirteen years ago) link
Love the pavillion, not too fond of the way it's used for the cover."ep" sounds good though, after the first high synth tones the intro sounds a bit like a johnny jewel production
― willem, Thursday, 17 March 2011 12:53 (thirteen years ago) link
x-post wow that's immense. reminds me of:http://forteanswest.com/wordpress-mu/newmexicolowfi/files/2010/06/The-Man-Who-Fell-to-Earth.jpg(Bowie in one of the set pieces of The Man Who Fell to Earth, pic from this session was also used as an album cover for Station to Station)
― willem, Thursday, 17 March 2011 12:56 (thirteen years ago) link
another track's streaming now over at Pitchfork - "Banana Ripple." pretty epic.
― Simon H. Shit (Simon H.), Tuesday, 26 April 2011 15:57 (twelve years ago) link
will these guys ever put out anything as emotionally wrecking as "FM" again?
― frogbs, Tuesday, 26 April 2011 16:06 (twelve years ago) link
oh man, "FM" is the best
― markers, Tuesday, 26 April 2011 16:56 (twelve years ago) link
yeah, I was dating an exchange student in college, and wound up taking her to the airport when she had to leave the country, of course "FM" is the first song the iPod picks on the way back; God, that just crushed me, what a ridiculously pretty tune
sad there was nothing even close on their 3rd album (which I admit I haven't heard in a while), but their 4th could deliver
― frogbs, Tuesday, 26 April 2011 17:52 (twelve years ago) link
"banana ripple" on soundcloud too
http://soundcloud.com/dominorecordco/junior-boys-banana-ripple
feeling this
― gr8080, Tuesday, 26 April 2011 19:02 (twelve years ago) link
Does any of it sound like Birthday or Last Exit?
― billstevejim, Tuesday, 26 April 2011 20:29 (twelve years ago) link
Every time I see this thread get bumped I get the Tracey Thorn song this album shares it's title with in my head, and now Banana Ripple actually reminds me of that song. I really like this, and I get the impression that this album is going to be a lot lighter and lot more fun than their previous efforts.
― ha ha ha ha jack my swag (boxedjoy), Tuesday, 26 April 2011 20:44 (twelve years ago) link
Was this album another long distance collaboration? I always figured that's what accounted for the more leisurely (but still great!) arrangements on the last one
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 26 April 2011 23:47 (twelve years ago) link
I thought ep was really good but this new song is even better, really excited for this album now.
Completely agree with people on FM, it's by far my favorite thing they've done and the chorus just breaks my heart everytime.
― Kitchen Person, Wednesday, 27 April 2011 11:06 (twelve years ago) link
when it comes to slow, pretty, sad JB jams for me:
"what its for" >>>>>>>>>>>>>>> "FM"
imo
― gr8080, Wednesday, 27 April 2011 11:27 (twelve years ago) link
i mean i guess "slow, pretty, sad jams" are most of their output but
― gr8080, Wednesday, 27 April 2011 11:30 (twelve years ago) link
iirc junior boys were the 1st artist(s) i discovered 100% via ilx <3
― gr8080, Wednesday, 27 April 2011 11:31 (twelve years ago) link
this is a good song but i'm not sure how appropriate his voice is for expressing happiness or joy
― lex pretend, Wednesday, 27 April 2011 11:47 (twelve years ago) link
the lex weighs in
― gr8080, Wednesday, 27 April 2011 11:49 (twelve years ago) link
Love it. Album is shaping up nicely.
― Touch of Death, Wednesday, 27 April 2011 11:59 (twelve years ago) link
Hoping for at least one more slinky r&b sad jam a la "Sneak a Picture" off the last one.
― Simon H. Shit (Simon H.), Wednesday, 27 April 2011 12:05 (twelve years ago) link
Ugh I dont like this track one bit. It's too Pet Shop Boys, too upbeat. Where's the yearning sexiness?
― Concubine Tree (Trayce), Thursday, 28 April 2011 03:25 (twelve years ago) link
I know it's a total cliche but this band has been getting further away from what they're great at with every record. The first LP and So This Is Goodbye were very close in quality and very distinct. The last one didn't grab me at all and this new one, from the samples so far, sounds like a ridiculously ill-advised maneuver into "sunnier" tunes. Last Exit was one of the most formative albums for me last decade but I have totally lost touch with where this band is at. Anyone else feel this way? I hate to be the "old stuff was better" guy - HATE IT - but this seems like an archetypal case.
― Badmotorfinger Debate Club (MFB), Thursday, 28 April 2011 04:42 (twelve years ago) link
i definitely rank their records oldest to newest but at the same time i don't really get the sense that they've declined as artists; it just feels incidental that they happened to have a slightly stronger set of songs the first time around etc
― ciderpress, Thursday, 28 April 2011 04:51 (twelve years ago) link
Yeah MFB I think I'm with you on that.
― Concubine Tree (Trayce), Thursday, 28 April 2011 05:28 (twelve years ago) link
For me what appeals about them is this kind of sad mood electro.
― Concubine Tree (Trayce), Thursday, 28 April 2011 05:30 (twelve years ago) link
strength to strength imo
― gr8080, Thursday, 28 April 2011 07:25 (twelve years ago) link
At the same time it would be very boring if they'd stuck with the exact same sound over the course of four albums. I do like this new direction, although based on EP and Banana Ripple it's not going to match the highs of the first two albums - what I really wish they'd done is followed up the direction hinted at from "No Kinda Man" from the DJ Kicks - a bit bleaker but dancefloor destructive.
― ha ha ha ha jack my swag (boxedjoy), Thursday, 28 April 2011 08:24 (twelve years ago) link
this album has leaked, looking forward to hearing this.
― Bee OK, Saturday, 14 May 2011 02:15 (twelve years ago) link
the third track cuts off abruptly at the end. just wondering if it's intentional.
― bakumastah, Saturday, 14 May 2011 11:48 (twelve years ago) link
My best listening experience with these clowns.
― ginny thomas and tonic (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 14 May 2011 13:52 (twelve years ago) link
I still like what they do but it's hard for me to imagine them ever beating Last Exit, which seemed a special moment in time.
― Steven Tyler the Creator (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Saturday, 14 May 2011 14:00 (twelve years ago) link
I think this is probably better overall than the last one, even if I don't hear a single song as good as "Hazel." Neither album matches the first two, though.
― jaymc, Saturday, 14 May 2011 15:06 (twelve years ago) link
OUT
― ilxor running, w/ laptop in hand, checking ILX as he sprints (ilxor), Sunday, 15 May 2011 03:48 (twelve years ago) link
loving this album.
"A Truly Happy Ending" is so perfect- that and "Banana Ripple" are totally gonna be my summer jams
― gr8080, Sunday, 15 May 2011 10:35 (twelve years ago) link
Yah 'truly happy ending' is a big standout imo. lots of remixes please.
― forest zombie (Vasco da Gama), Monday, 16 May 2011 10:53 (twelve years ago) link
Live ILXing this album? Maybe. Until I have to leave, at least.
"Itchy Fingers": the increased BPM and at-a-club-while-on-extacsy synths... I like this!
― my beautiful dark twisted fennessey (rennavate), Monday, 16 May 2011 22:43 (twelve years ago) link
"Playtime": icy, contemplative, more minimal than anything they've done before. Glockenspiel-like synths... others that could be threatening and ominous but don't have the shadows and weight to pull either off.
― my beautiful dark twisted fennessey (rennavate), Monday, 16 May 2011 22:45 (twelve years ago) link
I think with a fuller lower end the track could be devastating... interesting choice as the second track on the album. Makes "Itchy Fingers" feel like a false start, but this could be the odd one out.
― my beautiful dark twisted fennessey (rennavate), Monday, 16 May 2011 22:47 (twelve years ago) link
"You'll Improve Me": a little filler-y, to me, on first listen. I'm really like the synths on this record so far, and Jeremy's songwriting seems to be strong. Hooks not bad but nothing jumps out yet. It definitely feels like they're playing around with structure more, with more ventures off into the field or sudden left-field.
OH SHIT. 4:23: launches into a switchup slash permahook that's infectious.
― my beautiful dark twisted fennessey (rennavate), Monday, 16 May 2011 22:55 (twelve years ago) link
OK I'm housesitting and can only get internet by stealing some neighbour's wifi so I'll finish this after supper.
I like it so far.
― my beautiful dark twisted fennessey (rennavate), Monday, 16 May 2011 23:10 (twelve years ago) link
both "the reservoir" and "ep" have such barely-there, almost non-existent drum beats, its really nice
― gr8080, Tuesday, 17 May 2011 00:46 (twelve years ago) link
love so this is goodbye, the last one was okay, hope this one is better
― markers, Tuesday, 17 May 2011 00:49 (twelve years ago) link
― gr8080, Wednesday, April 27, 2011 9:25 PM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark
― gr8080, Tuesday, 17 May 2011 01:04 (twelve years ago) link
((((((d-_-b))))))
― markers, Tuesday, 17 May 2011 02:29 (twelve years ago) link
I agree with Matt DC
― brimstead, Saturday, 9 June 2018 18:14 (five years ago) link
Banana Ripple is a whopper tune.
― in twelve parts (lamonti), Monday, 11 June 2018 22:53 (five years ago) link
I still think of brad's "it makes me want to punch a cop" comment every time it comes on
― Simon H., Monday, 11 June 2018 23:03 (five years ago) link
that wasn't me, that was adam!
― flamenco blorf (BradNelson), Tuesday, 12 June 2018 00:41 (five years ago) link
banana ripple makes me want to get a neck tattoo and punch a cop
― adam, Friday, December 11, 2015 9:24 AM (1 month ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
most otm post in ilx history? who can say
― flamenco blorf (BradNelson), Tuesday, 12 June 2018 00:42 (five years ago) link
Oh shit props adam
― Simon H., Tuesday, 12 June 2018 01:02 (five years ago) link
*three years after big black coat comes out* boy big black coat sure sounds good today
― jolene club remix (BradNelson), Saturday, 16 March 2019 01:03 (five years ago) link
It's a teensy step below IAT imo but it's still very good. Looking forward to new material this year.
I did find this quote from an interview about the lyrics for the album interesting
Much in the way your last album was very autobiographical, I take it this album isn’t coming from your perspective, but the people around you?Absolutely. I wrote this album thinking about the kinds of people in my hometown. It’s a typical rust belt, post-industrial city where 80,000 people were employed by the steel mills, and now there’s only 4,000 people employed, so it’s a run down, depressive city with lots of lonely resentful men wandering the streets. The songs tended to be from their perspective, filled with men dealing with emotionally complex lives that they don’t want to articulate, so it just comes across as loneliness. There’s actually a little thread of misogyny, because it’s men dealing with being creepy toward women because they have nothing left.
Absolutely. I wrote this album thinking about the kinds of people in my hometown. It’s a typical rust belt, post-industrial city where 80,000 people were employed by the steel mills, and now there’s only 4,000 people employed, so it’s a run down, depressive city with lots of lonely resentful men wandering the streets. The songs tended to be from their perspective, filled with men dealing with emotionally complex lives that they don’t want to articulate, so it just comes across as loneliness. There’s actually a little thread of misogyny, because it’s men dealing with being creepy toward women because they have nothing left.
― Simon H., Saturday, 16 March 2019 01:14 (five years ago) link
... hm
― jolene club remix (BradNelson), Saturday, 16 March 2019 01:15 (five years ago) link
well i guess we'll see
tbc that quote is about Big Black Coat
― Simon H., Saturday, 16 March 2019 01:16 (five years ago) link
oh wow so i guess it did work!
― jolene club remix (BradNelson), Saturday, 16 March 2019 01:29 (five years ago) link
lol i'm really good at reading today
begone dull care is the one that I previously neglected but really clicked with me recently. so many great little details I’d never noticed, like the slide guitar at the end of Dull To Pause. and I love how spacious and unhurried it feels
― sciatica, Saturday, 16 March 2019 01:39 (five years ago) link
BDC is a weird little record but "Sneak a Picture" belongs in any Junior Boys POX
― Simon H., Saturday, 16 March 2019 01:46 (five years ago) link
Ah, I've been thinking about how much I still love this band a lot recently. I just played Begone Dull Care the other day. It's such a lovely record if you can get past the weird sequencing choice of putting Work as the second track. I've never understood why it was seen as a big drop off after the first two albums. Bits & Pieces, Hazel and Sneak A Picture are some of their best songs.
― kitchen person, Saturday, 16 March 2019 02:00 (five years ago) link
― jolene club remix (BradNelson), Friday, March 15, 2019 6:03 PM (eight months ago) bookmarkflaglink
― american bradass (BradNelson), Saturday, 16 November 2019 15:48 (four years ago) link
just about ready for the next one, it should be illegal that they don't have a new album out every other fall
― Simon H., Saturday, 16 November 2019 20:01 (four years ago) link
I don't know why it's taken four months of relative isolation to realise this but Last Exit is quite obviously one of my favourite records: its space of doubt, its metallic whispers, its interconnected, sprawling quality.
But why can't I really wait?Don't you want me here soI can offer you three words so true?Like I know you
― Vanishing Point (Chinaski), Monday, 27 July 2020 13:08 (three years ago) link
I assume they're just sitting on the next LP at this point. c'mon gents let's hear it
― the quar on drugs (Simon H.), Monday, 27 July 2020 13:24 (three years ago) link
i've only listened to the first few tracks so far but the new Jessy Lanza might be a decent way to tide yourself over.
― Evans on Hammond (evol j), Monday, 27 July 2020 13:56 (three years ago) link
oh I've heard it and it rules. to the extent that I'd love to hear her add production to their records!
― the quar on drugs (Simon H.), Monday, 27 July 2020 13:58 (three years ago) link
I think I read somewhere after the release of BBC that Greenspan isn’t interested in making any more Junior Boys records (sadly) and is more interested in reorienting his creative efforts into making music with Lanza
― winters (josh), Monday, 27 July 2020 17:12 (three years ago) link
aw, understandable but altogether too bad. I'm sure he'll get the itch again at some point.
― the quar on drugs (Simon H.), Monday, 27 July 2020 17:33 (three years ago) link
oh damn josh i don't think i'd read that. any recollection of where?
they did drop that EP soon after BBC that was great (Kiss Me All Night), but was released rather quietly. nice complement to the album though.
he also built a ridiculous studio and mix room from the ground up in the intervening years: https://www.instagram.com/bartonbuildingstudio/
the new jessy is great. it's always a little curious he does virtually zero press around the albums. i know early on he had some concern of his name somehow overshadowing things; maybe still the case. but seems just as much his project as hers (co-written, co-produced and fully mixed) that i personally just want to hear him riff on it!
― anza808, Monday, 27 July 2020 18:32 (three years ago) link
I liked the new record so much that I've been revisting the old ones. you know what I think I really disagree with the idea that the first two albums were the best. of course both great and I don't think Begone Dull Care tops them (as much as I love certain tracks) but this one I think is actually better? maybe it's just the proghead in me. listen to all those cool countermelodies! the way those slowly shifting off-time rhythms in "Kick the Can" sync up in the end! there's a 9 minute track and its pretty obviously the best thing they've done! is this just like one of those bands that people feel on such a personal level that the first record they hear by them is their favorite?
― frogbs, Wednesday, 29 March 2023 03:22 (one year ago) link
I think there is at least a decent argument that this is their best album, though I have never thought that it is particularly clear which one is. I do tend to think it’s their most accomplished and widest ranging but also most gregarious album. It’s also the album that least feels like the group are playing to a pre-established notion of style (though that is not necessarily a mark of superiority: one of the nice things about both the first album and the most recent is how much they sound like they’re quite deliberately going for a certain sound).
― Tim F, Wednesday, 29 March 2023 08:18 (one year ago) link
xp It is a first-record-heard thing for me (Last Exit) and there's really no possible way I'll listen to any of the others as often in my life. You just couldn't fit very much on a flash drive mp3 player in 2004 lol. First time living on my own at the time, etc. But thanks for the prompt to give this one another go.
― maf you one two (maffew12), Wednesday, 29 March 2023 12:12 (one year ago) link
oh shit I just realized something - this is the modern version of Abacab-era Genesis
― frogbs, Wednesday, 3 May 2023 02:40 (ten months ago) link
i mean that in a really good way of course
― frogbs, Wednesday, 3 May 2023 02:45 (ten months ago) link
it is very Abacab.
― Tim F, Wednesday, 3 May 2023 03:07 (ten months ago) link
Kick the Can is one of those things I think Tony Banks would've come up with had they been making music in the sequencer era
― frogbs, Wednesday, 3 May 2023 03:10 (ten months ago) link