by: Japie StoppelenburgAs the first decade of a new millennium draws to a close, and many a critic laments the impending death of the album, it’s nice to listen to a band that still looks at a record as a 10 inch vinyl circle of art that moves, lives, breathes and grows. It may seem peculiar and oxymoronic to include Junior Boys in this category, two Canadian audiophiles who with their digital mastery seem alienated from the analogue process, but one listen-through of their latest record, Begone Dull Care, clearly indicates the opposite: it’s a record that takes a little patience and a little effort but when given the proper attention it will become like that one album from when you were young that just won’t leave your iPod.
Unfortunately for Junior Boys, ‘attention’ has never been there in abundance for them. Despite their consistently great output they have been overshadowed by other bands more extravagant, more accessible, more exciting. Sure, they’ve been given their fifteen minutes on the ever so capricious blogosphere, but I have yet to meet someone who calls them his or her favourite band. Which is a shame, but not a surprise: somehow their music is convenient to have around, a nice distraction from all the really thrilling music out there. Would anyone truly miss Junior Boys if they decided to stop making music? It’s a shame nonetheless, because with a larger audience this record would have been heralded as their Kid A, a perfect resurrection of an already-great band.
The best thing about Junior Boys is their ability to play for both teams in the electronic music sport: their songs are catchy and always pleasant while dressed with attention to great technical detail and studio wizardry. With Begone Dull Care they’re leaning a little more on the latter: gone are the obvious synth hooks that So This is Goodbye floated on, while leading junior boy Jeremy Greenspan’s vocals are less ear-grabbing this time around. To stick with the vinyl reference: the best way to describe what the record actually sounds like is to picture a great, up-tempo 45RPM disco record and playing it at 33. What makes the record so fantastic is what the band does with all that extra space and time.
Read the full review here:
http://www.noripcord.com/reviews/music/junior-boys/begone-dull-care
Unfortunately for Junior Boys, ‘attention’ has never been there in abundance for them. Despite their consistently great output they have been overshadowed by other bands more extravagant, more accessible, more exciting. Sure, they’ve been given their fifteen minutes on the ever so capricious blogosphere, but I have yet to meet someone who calls them his or her favourite band. Which is a shame, but not a surprise: somehow their music is convenient to have around, a nice distraction from all the really thrilling music out there. Would anyone truly miss Junior Boys if they decided to stop making music? It’s a shame nonetheless, because with a larger audience this record would have been heralded as their Kid A, a perfect resurrection of an already-great band.
The best thing about Junior Boys is their ability to play for both teams in the electronic music sport: their songs are catchy and always pleasant while dressed with attention to great technical detail and studio wizardry. With Begone Dull Care they’re leaning a little more on the latter: gone are the obvious synth hooks that So This is Goodbye floated on, while leading junior boy Jeremy Greenspan’s vocals are less ear-grabbing this time around. To stick with the vinyl reference: the best way to describe what the record actually sounds like is to picture a great, up-tempo 45RPM disco record and playing it at 33. What makes the record so fantastic is what the band does with all that extra space and time.
Read the full review here:
http://www.noripcord.com/reviews/music/junior-boys/begone-dull-care
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