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

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

absolutely