Junior Boys - It's All True

Hey All. We're pleased to announce that we will be releasing our 4th album "It's All True" in June. Click the link for details and a free download of one of the new trax.

http://www.dominorecordco.com/juniorboys/

Excited, but not too crazy about that track on first listen.

Really like the song. Can't wait to hear the rest.

hrrrrmmmm

Just listening to "ep" and liking it. Doesn't give me any clue what this album's going to sound like, though.

wait, is bakumastah associated w/ the band or Domino records, or did he just copy/paste a press release written in the first person??

not at all. just forgot to to add something from myself.

This is my most anticipated album of the year.

It's up there for me (right now, I think my #1 is Jamie Woon).

Yeah I like this, this is good.

I'm always excited about a new Junior Boys!!

http://lastgasstation.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/its_all_true.jpg

It's All True is the fourth studio album by the Junior Boys, set to be released on June 14, 2011 on Domino Records.

Track listing:

1. Itchy Fingers
2. Playtime
3. You'll Improve Me
4. A Truly Happy Ending
5. The Reservoir
6. Second Chance
7. Kick the Can
8. ep
9. Banana Ripple

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twZQgKuyJ6Y

Not sure I'm a fan of that cover art.

Yeah, it's zzzzzzzzzzz.

Dig the song, though.

Aye the song is neat.

Shit I still havent heard the LAST album yet, I have some catching up to do.

no, you can skip it. it was good but doesn't come close to what they have done in the past.

still love their sound, looking forward to some new stuff.

wow, wordpress deleted that cover art awfully fast, lets try again:

http://www.impattosonoro.it/wp-content/themes/tma/images//junior_boys_its_all_true.jpg

This song's grown on me a lot. Also, count me as a fan of Begone Dull Care, definitely worth checking out IMO.

i too love Begone Dull Care.

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.

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.

its more LE>>>BDC>STIG

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.

The cover image is a closeup of the UK pavilion from the 2010 Expo in Shangai. It is indeed pretty hideous
http://images.travelpod.com/users/tungandmathur/1.1282944455.shanghai-expo-uk-pavillion.jpg

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.

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.

Enjoyed this fan made video reappropriating Jorodowski's Holy Mountain

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ht4PTqeqO4U&feature=related

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.

― Matt DC, dinsdag 24 mei 2011 22:04 (Yesterday) Bookmark

Whoa, for real? That's interesting, because I'm of exactly the opposite stance! The thing that put me off 'Begone Dull Care' were the vocals, I think it sounds insincere and, well, "pretend to be Junior Boys" on that album. And this one is such a return to form to my ears. Lacey breathy whispers, crystallic and hazy at the same time, so damn damn clear it's like he kisses you on the lips, hits in the heart. Incredible.

i like this album but wish the vox were lower in the mix & more subdued

I think I probably agree with Lex that his voice just doesn't sound RIGHT expressing joy or euphoria, it sounds forced, trying too hard. It'd be like if Beth Gibbons released an album of hands-in-the-air diva house bangers, just wrong.

do you reckon he's expressing much joy/euphoria on this record? I don't really see much

the general tone seems to be snideness in between trad JB wistfulness, with a bit of ambiguity on top

The song that sticks out like a sore thumb on this is EP. That’s the only one where there’s an explicit, unambiguous statement of affection, when everything else is tinged with a bitterness.

Anybody else think this might be a concept album about the break up of a relationship, framed chronologically? First song is where the ties start to fray, second is “this fight’s forever”, third is the breakdown of communications, fourth is the split. Then the fifth is the cold world-weariness, and the sixth is bitterness directed at the former partner. Kick the Can is the interlude (the passing of time). Then EP is the regret, and the wish to return, and the leftover emotion. Then Banana Ripple is a superior, weirdly triumphant kiss off, somewhere between “never go back” and “I’m over you”

That was just my reading of it the past couple of times I listened

Whoa, for real? That's interesting, because I'm of exactly the opposite stance! The thing that put me off 'Begone Dull Care' were the vocals, I think it sounds insincere and, well, "pretend to be Junior Boys" on that album. And this one is such a return to form to my ears. Lacey breathy whispers, crystallic and hazy at the same time, so damn damn clear it's like he kisses you on the lips, hits in the heart. Incredible.

I know exactly what you mean about "pretend to be Junior Boys"... His vocals have always slightly irked me, but he sounds like a real cheesedick on Begone Dull Care, and I think I basically shelved that record after two listens. I'll definitely check out the new one.

You'll Improve Me is my jam. I don't think we'll see a better chorus this year

i like this album but wish the vox were lower in the mix & more subdued

― i genuinely thought when i first joined that he was the admin (ilxor)

inclined to agree after a headphone session on the bus. Also I'm thinking the drums are a bit weak overall.

i would say the drums are restrained, not weak.

I burned out 'birthday' and 'high come down' from Last Exit. Still dig 'teach me how to fight' though. Hazel in 2nd place. In the Morning 1st.

This isn't really sticking to me yet. Agree that the vocals are way upfront. think 'ep' I like best.

I meant in the mixing rather than programming. I can appreciate the restraint. Can't fault a band for making an album of electronic music but avoiding the tropes of the heavy kick club mixing and making a solid album with 'songs' and electronic instrumentation. Sometimes it's hard to not need that kind of mixing with this kind of stuff.

i played "kick the can" in a lounge set last nite, it worked nicely

"Banana Ripple" is constantly being played in the shop beside my work and it makes me very happy stepping out for my lunch break to hear it, such a fantastic song.

still fuck w/ that song on the reg

so euphoric

So ... we're probably due a new one, no?

I really hope so. I'm sure I saw them say somewhere that an album was definitely coming soon.

Only came around to It's All True a few months ago with a cheap CD copy. Didn't even recall what I'd sampled at the time and had modest expectations at this point, but was immediately all "Whoa. How/why did I sleep on this one?" etc.

I think Itchy Fingers, ep and Banana Ripple are all up there with the best songs they've done.

Banana Ripple is the secret best song of their career in my opinion.

And they're back https://soundcloud.com/junior_boys/what-you-wont-do-for-love

god this is so good, i've been jamming to this all day

Ha, I posted that to Bobby Caldwell "what you won't do for love" C/D.

I was excited about new Junior Boys material, but I'm honestly not that into this. A big part of the appeal of the original song (for me, at least) is the easygoing, languid groove, and this has none of that.

Junior Boys have announced their return with Big Black Coat, their first album in almost five years.

Big Black Coat

Junior Boys have announced their return with Big Black Coat, their first album in almost five years, and also their first for City Slang, who will release it on February 5, 2016 (the record will come out on the band's own label, GEEJ, in Canada). They've also shared lead single 'Big Black Coat', a decidedly wintry track that sees them embracing their love of techno while simultaneously refining their soul pop sensibilities. Additionally, Junior Boys will be touring the US and EU with Jessy Lanza starting in February of next year.

A strikingly energizing and intuitively dynamic set of songs, Big Black Coat is shaped by what Jeremy Greenspan and Matt Didemus have been doing in the five years since their last release. The Hamilton, Ontario duo have racked up four albums since they formed in 1999, including their 2004 debut Last Exit and 2006's So This Is Goodbye, two rapturous -- and rapturously received -- records that were as poignant as they were impeccably produced, and prefigured the digital R&B so beloved of many an artist in the last few years. Two albums followed, the last being It's All True in 2011.

The years since then have been filled with nourishing independent pursuits. Greenspan released two solo singles and a collaborative EP on Jiaolong, the label run by his old friend and fellow Hamiltonian Dan Snaith (aka Caribou, Daphni -- Greenspan also mixed several songs from Swim). Greenspan also co-wrote and co-produced Pull My Hair Back, the acclaimed 2013 album from Hamilton singer, songwriter and producer Jessy Lanza (more recently, the pair remixed Le1f). Meanwhile, Didemus -- who's now based in Berlin -- started releasing solo tracks under the name Diva and launched his own label, Obsession. This shift in both Boy's focus was crucial to the making of Big Black Coat.

"One of the nice things about doing the solo stuff," Greenspan explains, "and in particular the album with Jessy, because it did so well, was that I could stop thinking about Junior Boys as being the thing I do and start thinking about it as a thing to do. That meant I could work with Junior Boys music with the same spirit as I did when it was new. It was hugely liberating and invigorating me, because I was doing things I felt really good and confident about. I was really happy with the last two Junior Boys albums, but if I look back on it, they were challenging records to make, in a way that this one absolutely wasn't."

This renewed vigor surges through Big Black Coat. It's what carries its overall sharp mix of sounds. It's what encouraged the pair to strip their original "complicated" version of 'Love Is A Fire' down to its compellingly looped bare bones and made Greenspan experiment with vocal treatments, as he does on the idiosyncratically Auto-Tuned 'Over It'. But it's the title track that sets the album's scene. 'Big Black Coat' gradually warms and spreads light as it builds over seven minutes, nodding to Yellow Magic Orchestra ("their records are so strange," reckons Greenspan) and Plastikman as it goes. It also features a conceptually crucial percussion sound, made with a modular synth. "To my ears, it's the sound of fabric swishing," Greenspan says. "That day, I bought a coat -- in fact, a big grey coat, but singing 'big black coat' worked better. And it really encapsulated everything I was thinking about when I made the album, so I wanted that as the title."

The previously released 'What You Won't Do For Love' sees Junior Boys revising Bobby Caldwell's over-easy soul track from 1978, adding a subtle undercurrent of UK bass to what is only their second ever cover. Elsewhere, there's an acknowledgement of ESP's 1986 proto-house tune 'It's You', which uses an ultra rare Syntion Fénix synth ('M + P') and a ballad that reignites Greenspan's love affair with the hushed, soulful pop of Prefab Sprout, 10cc and Scritti Politti, via contemporary R&B ('Baby Don't Hurt Me'). Detroit is a strong undercurrent flowing through the record too, with nods to heavyweights Robert Hood, Dan Bell and Richie Hawtin throughout.

Fusing disco and soul with the industrial pop and techno of Greenspan's formative teens is what makes Big Black Coat so distinctive and compelling. It's the sound of Junior Boys both cutting loose and reconnecting. As Greenspan sees it; "The fact that we haven't put out an album in a long time has been liberating, in that we haven't been so phenomenally successful that everyone knows who we are. With this album, a lot of people will be hearing us for the first time. There's a freedom that comes from that."

Pre-ordered. Love the track.

I was skeptical about that title but I'm pretty damn into the title track.

going for a jesus and mary chain vibe

http://i.imgur.com/M63muVq.jpg

i really like this https://soundcloud.com/junior_boys/over-it

wow this song is really great

I'm avoiding listening to any songs from the album until it's released, but I hope it's an album that I return to often, which was not the case with their last one, save a few songs. Their first misstep, imo.

really think the direction of this album so far is interesting. the detroit techno embellishments really blend with greenspan's vocal

one of these days i'm going to "get" begone dull care. i'm revisiting it's all true right now and love it more than ever?

and the jessy lanza record from two years ago kinda quietly grew in my estimation and i think it's stunning now

BDG makes more sense if you pretend it starts with "Bits and Pieces" imo

the jessy lanza record was one of my favorites from 2013 and remains so, especially approaching winter

banana ripple makes me want to get a neck tattoo and punch a cop

SAME

I think I've seen junior boys play more often than any band (excepting friends' bands)

just found out last week they're playing here in february and tickets went on sale at the end of october and it's sold out boo hoo

I snagged tix for April already, it'll be my first time!

any ILMers heard this yet? handful of people on last.fm are listening to it, so figure some copies are out there. curious what to expect.

i feel like i'm the only person who's highly anticipating this new album, someone please tell me i'm wrong

You're wrong.

i really fooled myself into thinking this would be a return to form but it made me lose interest in this band all over again

excited to pick this record up two years later and suddenly realize how much i like it

Yeah, Josh you are wrong. I love the three singles so far and have very high hopes for the album.

i'm enjoying the record.

i'm enjoying the record.

― in twelve parts (lamonti), Wednesday, January 27, 2016 1:54 PM (12 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

.......do you have it

"big black coat" and "over it" just sound better and better the more i listen to them

banana ripple is one of the best things they or basically anyone has ever done so i am super psyched for new shit, i love these dudes even when they are kinda boring

^^^^^

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

this is my favorite ilx post

BDG makes more sense if you pretend it starts with "Bits and Pieces" imo

btw this worked

yesss

I love the super mellow last couple of tracks, also "Sneak a Picture" might be my fave of theirs period

'the animator' was the real slow burner from that record

if they play either of those when I see them in April I may die

relevant to our interests - new Jessy Lanza album, again produced by Greenspan

http://www.residentadvisor.net/news.aspx?id=33125

co-produced with her, I mean.

I did the same with Begone Dull Care when I first got it (starting with Bits & Pieces) but I have grown to love Parallel Lines too. Work just totally kills the mood. Everything after that is great. It's such an underrated album. I guess following two absolute masterpieces was always going to be tough for them. I think it's good enough to follow two 10/10s with an 8.

I really liked It's All True when it came out but the last time I played it I only really got a lot out of Itchy Fingers, ep, The Reservoir and Banana Ripple. Hoping the new one is more consistent and has better staying power.

i might see these guys in, i think, April in Southern California. hope they are good live.

Oh hi: http://www.npr.org/2016/01/27/464564269/first-listen-junior-boys-big-black-coat

AAAAAAAAAA

I missed these guys so much!

unearthing all sorts of feels i got from the first two but not the last two - this is fucking great!

whoa "C'mon Baby" gets v close to shoegaze near the end

live, with much more guitar than they used on record, they would end first-album tracks like 'under the sun' w/ big shoegazey buildups

oh man yeah this sounds good

I'm gonna have to stop my listen to go to bed but it sounds p good, "Baby Give Up On It" is a bit boilerplate tho

I'll listen to the junior boys when that dude stops singing. Good gravy.

well this is really good

even the flimsier songs have some element that totally alters the environment

like "baby give up on it" which sounds unremarkable at first and then turns into a post-disco/minimal techno hybrid

"baby give up on it" is the exact point where i flipped from oh-good-more-junior-boys-this-is-nice to fuck yes

.......do you have it

― j. winters (josh), Wednesday, January 27, 2016 10:07 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Was sent a promo of it, it feels like it makes a triangle with Our Love and Pull My Hair Back

i even like the wacky "what you won't do for love" cover now

those handclaps tho

trying again with this and ugh still not grabbing me...it sounds so samey, none of the melodies or songs are distinguishing themselves from each other apart from the ones that are slightly more boring. keep hoping they'll rediscover the magic of the first two albums but this isn't it

you sound so samey

new record is like if you took the inimitable aura of arthur russell's <i>world of echo</i> to the dancefloor so it wins for me

i think greenspan's vocals are the most incidental they've ever been to the sound of the record but i loooooove the sound

their new live show totally rocked so if you don't have tickets yet, hustle hustle

Seeing 'em in April!

I feel like the hit ratio has been p much the same for the last three albums? Love the first few tracks but the interstitial ones, plus "M&P" and "Love Is A Fire," kinda bore me. Totally came around on "Baby Don't Give Up On It," though.

pitchfork says it has something to do with detroit techno? i don't think i believe that

Heh, didn't see that, but came here more or less to post my takeaway is ... yes, classic Detroit techno, electronic Chicago house a la Larry Heard, etc. Not sure the album justifies the wait - it's kind of subdued - but to the group's credit it's still really identifiable as a new Junior Boys album. They got a sound and this sounds like it.

New ep Kiss Me All Night is out, and up on Spotify. Big Black Coat was the first JB album I couldn't really get into (as of yet I've no idea why, either). I'm digging the new ep though.

So, Mrs. Chachi and me were talking about how devastating the debut was -- how, for us, it was a shared musical moment that hit with profound impact, one of few moments like it over the past however-many years. we both enjoyed begone dull care, too, but felt that there was a sad / tragic / mournful note in the debut that we didn't hear since. i'm listening to big black coat now and wondering if I missed something - I hear notes of that sadness, that submerged personal deeply introspective note in e.g. "over it." anybody got thoughts on the last ten years or so of the junior boys they'd like to share?

i really need to revisit big black coat again, as i've said probably multiple times on this thread it apparently takes years for later junior boys records to open up to me. it's all true is front to back great imo but i'm not sure if it necessarily hits that introspective mournful note except on "playtime" and "the reservoir"; the primary vibe i get from it is almost a kind of manic bitterness

The debut remains amazing. My favourite JBs song, however, is The Animator from Begone... The way that songs moves is incredibly singular and beautiful to me.

"the animator" is probably my favorite post-debut mournful JB. don't think they ever managed to recreate that vibe in the uptempo songs again though like the first 2 songs on the debut.

"Sneak a Picture" might be my fave JBs sad jam

"Banana Ripple" is the one for me

There's a sense of space in the first one that the others lack, these perfectly constructed syncopated beats that play off all the other sounds and then drop off altogether, this rhythmic cage for the sadness in the songs to reverberate around, there's no sound there that doesn't need to be there. Subsequent albums lost that a bit, especially whenever they went upbeat, but I can listen to the title track of Last Exit and it works for me every single time.

The second album is wonderful as well but that Johnny Dark clatter bought something to the table on the debut that their progressively more straightforward subsequent albums have never quite recaptured.

I think So This is Goodbye and Begone Dull Care are about as good as the debut, albeit a bit less busy; iirc it was among if not the first sort of indie groups that seemed to be influenced by Timbaland-styled R&B production. This one (It's All True) is the first one that never entered regular rotation for me. The most recent one I only remember listening to once, need to revisit!

I agree with Matt DC

Banana Ripple is a whopper tune.

I still think of brad's "it makes me want to punch a cop" comment every time it comes on

that wasn't me, that was adam!

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

Oh shit props adam

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

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