Junior Boys - It's All True

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.

They Rhodes on Playtime are great. Been waiting for someone to use some in the front of a track for ages. Kind of feel like they're more comfortable leaning on their writing rather than electronics/instrumentation on this album. By that I mean everything feels dead precise in the arrangement. At least more so than STIGB and LE.

this might be surpassing kaputt for my album of the year :-O

also the madonna vibes in Banana Split are so well placed. mmm

I don't like Itchy Fingers very much, it feels kinda forced, like it was written to be 2/3rds the tempo and then sped up. Rest of it is great. Also after years of being compared to it they've finally made an actual 2-steppy track.

I am enjoying this new album way more than I'd expected on forehand. I too think they will never top 'Last Exit', thought 'So This is Goodbye' was great, but I really had issues getting into 'Begone Dull Care' and feared they'd 'grow away from me'. But this album is great. It's perfectly balanced, between faster-paced and slower cuts, it's exciting in details and the sound is as lush as they get.

as a fan that sees all three (now four) albums as almost equally great, i'm a little puzzled as to the general consensus that last exit is the standard to which they've never lived up to (i've listened to all four more than once in the last month).

not being challoppy: would honestly love to hear ilmers reason why they stan for the debut over anything else.

I don't feel completely comfortable stanning for 'Last Exit', because I think 'So This Is Goodbye' is great too and the new one is also fantastic. I wouldn't want to put those down or take anything away from their beauty. However, for me 'Last Exit' is a magical record, whereas the others ones are really great, but not magical. It will have all to do with 'Last Exit' being their first, and it has a dreamy melancholy I haven't heard from them after. To me they've started to sound more 'condensed' with every album, more compact songs and more emphasis on those songs, stripping away the ambient meanderings that were woven through 'Last Exit' more. There's a dreaminess on the new one here and there that I've not heard since LE though, which has rather surprised me.

Rhythmically, Last Exit is miles above the other three - there's something about the interplay between the more syncopated beats and the rest of the music that really heightens the emotional effect. It works brilliantly on the opening track, and even more so on the title track, which has so much space in it for the beats to echo round. Sonically it's better as well, it sounds deeper, with more going on, than the later records.

Also, I think Greenspan understands his vocal limitations more on the first album (and to an extent the second), he's better as a hushed near-whisper than when he's going all out and straining for high notes.

Overall they lost a lot of creative input when Johnny Dark left, and while the subsequent albums have been good they don't quite have songs that match up to More Than Real/Last Exit/Teach Me How To Fight. The latter is closer to a later JBs sound but its kinda perfected there as well.

the debut is great but i'll stan harder for So This Is Goodbye, i think it's a pretty perfect marriage of the moody downbeat soundscapes of their debut and totally perfect songcraft. their peaks are "teach me how to fight"(!!!) from the debut, and then a ton from Goodbye—"count souvenirs," "in the morning," "FM"

best thing they do live is the amped-up version of "under the sun" that closed their set last time i saw them (Goodbye era show)

Matt DC: I don't totally agree with every point you made, but that was a great post, thanks. I relistened to "more than real" last nite and it's on a different level from anything else they've done. I just really like the less complex stuff too.

want to hear an amped-up "under the sun" now

There's a version of it on the So This Is Goodbye Deluxe Edition

I'm not sure how much I'll go back to this one, feels kinda naff in places for reasons I can't put my finger on. The vocals, maybe? He doesn't sound wholly convincing when he's doing uptempo tracks, kinda like he's karaokeing his own songs. I like him when he's slowing things down and singing in a breathy whisper. Love Banana Ripple and Playtime though.

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