Which is the best Junior Boys album?: Last Exit (2004) vs. So This Is Goodbye (2006)

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Let's not kid ourselves, the best Junior Boys album is either their first (Last Exit) or second (So This Is Goodbye). Which is it? And why?

Poll Results

OptionVotes
Last Exit 29
So This Is Goodbye 10


azaera, Thursday, 30 August 2012 04:07 (thirteen years ago)

Last Exit easily crushes So This Is Goodbye but they're both great albums.

brotherlovesdub, Thursday, 30 August 2012 04:09 (thirteen years ago)

love both but last exist, easily

emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Thursday, 30 August 2012 04:10 (thirteen years ago)

thirded.

toby, Thursday, 30 August 2012 05:10 (thirteen years ago)

So This Is Goodbye

heiswagger (rennavate), Thursday, 30 August 2012 15:38 (thirteen years ago)

This is tough, Last Exit is one of the best synthpop albums of the decade but the song "FM" means so damn much to me

frogbs, Thursday, 30 August 2012 15:40 (thirteen years ago)

last exit but they're both so good

ciderpress, Thursday, 30 August 2012 16:29 (thirteen years ago)

last exit has this creepy stalker vibe that gives it a lot more mystique and was mostly swapped out for additional romanticism on so this is goodbye

ciderpress, Thursday, 30 August 2012 16:33 (thirteen years ago)

Last Exit clearly has something that none of the subsequent albums have, it's the Johnny Dark influence, the willingness to use rhythm as an emotive tool in its own right.

Matt DC, Thursday, 30 August 2012 16:37 (thirteen years ago)

it's hard to even put into words how much Last Exit meant/means to me - I don't think anything else they were going to do really could have competed with it, because I came into Last Exit without expectations. I had heard it was really good. So This Is Goodbye is an album the The Band That Made Last Exit. It's great, but it did not change my life in that reorienting-you-emotionally way that Last Exit did.

we don't wanna miss a THING!!! (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Thursday, 30 August 2012 17:15 (thirteen years ago)

Lovely tour as well.

Rest well nick.K

Ned Raggett, Thursday, 30 August 2012 17:16 (thirteen years ago)

I think the reason this a toss up for me is that I wasn't exposed to JB until 2006, when So This Is Goodbye came out (I was knee deep in school books during the first half of the decade, so I missed out on a lot until I finished). I had just moved to Portland at the time and was living in a sleek new high rise along the river. The soft, meticulously arranged, bubbly synth textures of STIG fit perfectly in my new setting of well-crafted new construction among the endless sea of trees that is Portland.

Taken in reverse order, STIG sounded like JB honing their sound and coming up with a near perfect synth pop album that rivaled any of its 80s forbears. Last Exit, don't get me wrong, is exquisite. The production is looser, more varied, more unpredictable, and it certainly broke more ground than its successor. And to these ears, probably nothing in their entire catalog equals the sublimity of the title track. But to me, some of its rhythmic gymnastics sound just slightly superfluous (as if Johnny Dark weren't completely confident in the songs' ability to stand on their own). STIG just kind of cuts to the bone of the sound/emotional location that I think they were aiming for in the first place.

azaera, Thursday, 30 August 2012 18:52 (thirteen years ago)

http://www.urbancondospaces.com/files/2011/01/One_Lincoln_Loft_View.jpg

*puts So This Is Goodbye on the hi-fi*
*climbs up ladder to settee*

ayonanas (Matt P), Thursday, 30 August 2012 19:02 (thirteen years ago)

ha, exactly

azaera, Thursday, 30 August 2012 19:06 (thirteen years ago)

STIG just kind of cuts to the bone of the sound/emotional location that I think they were aiming for in the first place.

I kind of think it cuts to the bone of what one of the duo working on those tracks was doing, sure.

your native bacon (mh), Thursday, 30 August 2012 21:16 (thirteen years ago)

haha

Tim F, Thursday, 30 August 2012 21:36 (thirteen years ago)

MH - I sort of agreed until I thought about it; now I'm actually not sure of which half of the duo you speak (?) I think there's enough continuity between the two albums that there's no dramatic departure. Yes, there's a noticeable difference in production (the Matt Didemus influence is felt); but both sound like JB records. I was kind of surprised when I realized that Jeremy Greenspan has more command of the duo's sound than I'd realized (for further support of this claim, see Johnny Dark's uneven Stereo Image project). I'm not a big fan of Greenspan's vocals, but I've come to appreciate his less obvious contributions to their sound.

I see their progression somewhat analogous to that of Depeche Mode. Vince Clark had/has a very distinctive sound that is easy to spot in each of his bands. I do love Speak & Spell (even if the following year's Upstairs at Eric's blows it out of the water). But I now consider DP's subsequent 80s albums + Violator as more definitive of their sound.

It's not to say that I think So This Is Goodbye is necessarily the better album, but I associate it as being closer to the Junior Boys' intended aesthetic.

azaera, Thursday, 30 August 2012 23:41 (thirteen years ago)

I have a hard time placing one album over the other, but then again I at least like every JBs record.

Simon H., Friday, 31 August 2012 00:01 (thirteen years ago)

Both these albums are perfect but So This Is Goodbye just has the edge for me. FM is one of my favourite songs ever.

Kitchen Person, Friday, 31 August 2012 00:03 (thirteen years ago)

The half of the duo... that was still in the band when that album was recorded? Most of Last Exit is JD + JG collaborating, with the exception of a couple tracks that are mostly JG w/some MD input.

"Intended aesthetic" only works if you think of Junior Boys as Jeremy Greenspan plus a collaborator, which is basically how the first album is credited -- "Jeremy Greenspan with Johnny Dark and Matt Didemus." The later work is just credited to "Junior Boys," which at that point is Greenspan and Didemus, although in interviews Didemus kind of downplayed his role initially, if I remember correctly.

The thing with ilx is that a lot of us listened to (overly many times) that first album, and in fact the material that was released before it. Both singles were Greenspan + Dark, so that's kind of a valid interpretation of who "Junior Boys" really was at that point. So when you say something about the sound "they" were aiming for... you're talking about two different "theys!"

your native bacon (mh), Friday, 31 August 2012 00:47 (thirteen years ago)

fwiw, Stereo Image was ehhh but the Johnny Dark EP was good and one of the tracks was the JB remix that was originally in the promo material floating around on the net before the first album was released.

your native bacon (mh), Friday, 31 August 2012 00:48 (thirteen years ago)

Yeah my first exposure to Junior Boys was the 2002 promo EP which was massive for me at the time, and if anything was slightly more Dark than Greenspan - not just the amazing "High Come Down" remix but also two basically instrumental 2-step tunes which never appeared again (actually I bet if I listen to these again now they will seem really post-dubstep).

Ironically at the time I thought that the promo went slightly too far in that direction - those 2 tunes were probably the weakest, though conversely the remix of "High Come Down" was possibly the best thing there.

Tim F, Friday, 31 August 2012 01:12 (thirteen years ago)

Although it should be stressed as well that Greenspan seemed to be really into 2-step/proto-dubstep etc. as well, I remember his shortlived blog massively (over)praising the first Dubstep Allstars mix.

Tim F, Friday, 31 August 2012 01:14 (thirteen years ago)

Did you listen to the JD ep, Tim? I think I had the random tracks somewhere, but it seemed like that ep was actually several of them.

your native bacon (mh), Friday, 31 August 2012 01:17 (thirteen years ago)

All good points, MH. I suppose I'm referring to the entire Junior Boys oeuvre. I addressed the chronology issue already, so I get what you're saying about Last Exit being the foundation for their sound. I suppose I'm looking at it more from an historian's perspective and considering all of their output until now.

To draw another (more arbitrary) comparison, let's take the director Stanley Kubrick. Looking back now, I suspect more people would say that Full Metal Jacket (1987) is a more 'Kubrickian' war film than Paths of Glory (1957) - regardless of preference - despite the earlier film being more foundational to his artistic development. The same could obviously be said of many musical artists.

When I look back at all of JB's work, I think STIG might just edge out LE as the more definitive album. But again, that's not to say it's necessarily the better album.

I'm rambling. I need to eat...

azaera, Friday, 31 August 2012 01:24 (thirteen years ago)

Yeah I have it somewhere.

It's good but I still though the HCD remix was the best thing on there.

Tim F, Friday, 31 August 2012 01:25 (thirteen years ago)

Begone Dull Care is my favourite. they never wrote a better song than The Animator imo.

jed_, Friday, 31 August 2012 01:48 (thirteen years ago)

I'm not saying Last Exit is the foundation for anything! I'm saying my perceptions are colored by it and it's really an album by a group with different aims.

your native bacon (mh), Friday, 31 August 2012 02:24 (thirteen years ago)

When I think "Junior Boys" I think, hmm, I like that band. Then I get wistful, think back a few years, and think of this:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/899741/pictures/jbs.jpg

your native bacon (mh), Friday, 31 August 2012 02:44 (thirteen years ago)

(rip nick kilroy!)

your native bacon (mh), Friday, 31 August 2012 02:44 (thirteen years ago)

Fair enough. I just think the aims of the group didn't so much markedly change as they fleshed out a bit. Unfortunately, I don't think the subsequent two albums - while good- haven't lived up to those aims.

azaera, Friday, 31 August 2012 04:21 (thirteen years ago)

to be fair, the first tour was matt didemus looking bored while hitting chords on the keyboard and smoking a cigarette. it was the last year or two before most places outlawed smoking indoors, though

your native bacon (mh), Friday, 31 August 2012 05:06 (thirteen years ago)

last exit has this creepy stalker vibe that gives it a lot more mystique and was mostly swapped out for additional romanticism on so this is goodbye

yeah, that feeling of an idling car on a frozen street with something worrying in the trunk, the skittery winterishness of last exit: that is the thing that i love best and most complicatedly. a year or so ago i saw junior boys with a drunk friend and we danced to them as cheery synthpop and it was wonderful but it was a thousand miles from hearing the same warm sounds hanging uneasily in 'birthday'.

v for viennetta (c sharp major), Friday, 31 August 2012 07:34 (thirteen years ago)

Pretty sure I heard STIG first and it's a good album but Last Exit is near-perfect, I don't know if it's because the arrangements are stronger or what but it definitely sounds like they knew exactly what they were doing.

Gavin, Leeds, Friday, 31 August 2012 09:29 (thirteen years ago)

c sharp major OTFM

licorice oratorio (baaderonixx), Friday, 31 August 2012 09:53 (thirteen years ago)

i wonder what Dark is doing?

jed_, Friday, 31 August 2012 12:16 (thirteen years ago)

do they do superloud shoegaze guitar on any of the post-STIG songs live, like they do on the back half of 'last exit'?

j., Saturday, 1 September 2012 04:23 (thirteen years ago)

that just reminded me there's a fennesz mix of last exit (song, not album)! off to headphones land I go

your native bacon (mh), Saturday, 1 September 2012 04:42 (thirteen years ago)

Aaand it turns out I have the 2002 unreleased ep thing on my other computer. It was six songs, including that remix and two unreleased ones, right?

your native bacon (mh), Saturday, 1 September 2012 04:50 (thirteen years ago)

that fennesz remix is one of the best things any of them has been involved in

licorice oratorio (baaderonixx), Saturday, 1 September 2012 07:37 (thirteen years ago)

all of their records is great

conrad, Saturday, 1 September 2012 10:32 (thirteen years ago)

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

System, Tuesday, 4 September 2012 00:01 (thirteen years ago)

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

System, Wednesday, 5 September 2012 00:01 (thirteen years ago)

Last Exit easily crushes So This Is Goodbye but they're both great albums.
― brotherlovesdub

That about sums things up.

azaera, Wednesday, 5 September 2012 01:37 (thirteen years ago)

seven years pass...

https://thequietus.com/articles/27172-tom-fleming-wild-beasts-one-true-pairing-bakers-dozen-favourite-albums?fbclid=IwAR0yAmhsktV7w2UoGm5VVW5U781WzutT8KZN8xkMIOZYZ0dSdkzMiVS95zo&page=11

A huge influence upon Wild Beasts, it turns out;

No Junior Boys, no Two Dancers. .. Laurence Bell gave us the record and said ‘I think you boys will like this’ – and it was like, ‘Yeah, okay, we’ll listen to that and make you another record that sounds a bit like it.’ This one in particular has lots of sad, sexy songs, and it was a way into the synthetic thing for me, because I’d come from a background of playing instruments and didn’t know one end of a computer from another, but I got this. It’s got all the austerity of techno, in the service of these very sexy love songs written by two awkward guys from Canada..

Their lyrics resonated with me. It didn’t feel like an energetic record, but like a sad one, as if you’re dancing despite the sadness, and there’s this late-night bed-hopping despair to it which is fucking awesome. It’s sexy and there’s a consistent melancholy that gets to you, but also with lots of big hooks and great choruses. They should have been massive; they should be massive. I would say they were one of our greatest shared influences, and led us down an avenue away from [Wild Beasts’ debut] Limbo, Panto, that scattergun indie thing, into something sleeker.

piscesx, Friday, 27 September 2019 13:11 (six years ago)


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