Junior Boys - It's All True

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

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

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)

another track's streaming now over at Pitchfork - "Banana Ripple." pretty epic.

will these guys ever put out anything as emotionally wrecking as "FM" again?

oh man, "FM" is the best

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

"banana ripple" on soundcloud too

http://soundcloud.com/dominorecordco/junior-boys-banana-ripple

feeling this

Does any of it sound like Birthday or Last Exit?

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.

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

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.

when it comes to slow, pretty, sad JB jams for me:

"what its for" >>>>>>>>>>>>>>> "FM"

imo

i mean i guess "slow, pretty, sad jams" are most of their output but

iirc junior boys were the 1st artist(s) i discovered 100% via ilx <3

this is a good song but i'm not sure how appropriate his voice is for expressing happiness or joy

the lex weighs in

Love it. Album is shaping up nicely.

Hoping for at least one more slinky r&b sad jam a la "Sneak a Picture" off the last one.

Ugh I dont like this track one bit. It's too Pet Shop Boys, too upbeat. Where's the yearning sexiness?

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.

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

Yeah MFB I think I'm with you on that.

For me what appeals about them is this kind of sad mood electro.

strength to strength imo

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.

this album has leaked, looking forward to hearing this.

the third track cuts off abruptly at the end. just wondering if it's intentional.

My best listening experience with these clowns.

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.

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.

My best listening experience with these clowns.

OUT

loving this album.

"A Truly Happy Ending" is so perfect- that and "Banana Ripple" are totally gonna be my summer jams

Yah 'truly happy ending' is a big standout imo. lots of remixes please.

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!

"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.

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.

"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.

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.

both "the reservoir" and "ep" have such barely-there, almost non-existent drum beats, its really nice

love so this is goodbye, the last one was okay, hope this one is better

strength to strength imo

― gr8080, Wednesday, April 27, 2011 9:25 PM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark

((((((d-_-b))))))

"its just a second of your time/ gone like a casual sigh" = the most typical Junior Boys line i could imagine

...continuing:

"The Reservoir": beautiful track, and Jeremy's soaring vocals are breathtaking during the chorus. Damn, son.

"Second Chance": "Remember, you're still a lousy faker/ Ten years at least, just a burned out raver." James Murphy and Mike Skinner helping Greenspan writing lyrics this time, around? Junior Boys have always been dance music, but this seems more explicitly 80s.

"Kick the Can": An... instrumental. Cool. A bit of a left-field move for these guys, but it has a slick motorik pulse. A palette cleanser, for sure.

"ep": The obvious lead single from the album, especially hearing it in the context of the album. That is perhaps an indictment of the other tracks' "singleness," but I think that just because there's no "Hazel" or "In the Morning" doesn't mean other tracks can't function as singles. "Itchy Fingers" and "A Truly Happy Ending" would be good future singles.

Happy is an interesting look for these guys.

Greenspan actually pulls of the knot-in-the-stomach euphoria pretty well, though, and it's nice to hear.

"Banana Ripple": Great title for a song, by the way. This aims for the big finish but not in the hyper-calculated anticlimactic-in-reality cumshot of shitty trance music. The release is more cathartic than violent, like really good disco from the 70s.

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.

... hm

well i guess we'll see

tbc that quote is about Big Black Coat

oh wow so i guess it did work!

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

BDC is a weird little record but "Sneak a Picture" belongs in any Junior Boys POX

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.

*three years after big black coat comes out* boy big black coat sure sounds good today

― jolene club remix (BradNelson), Friday, March 15, 2019 6:03 PM (eight months ago) bookmarkflaglink

just about ready for the next one, it should be illegal that they don't have a new album out every other fall

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 so
I can offer you three words so true?
Like I know you

I assume they're just sitting on the next LP at this point. c'mon gents let's hear it

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.

oh I've heard it and it rules. to the extent that I'd love to hear her add production to their records!

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

aw, understandable but altogether too bad. I'm sure he'll get the itch again at some point.

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!

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?

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).

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.

oh shit I just realized something - this is the modern version of Abacab-era Genesis

i mean that in a really good way of course

it is very Abacab.

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