Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Goodbye!, 6 Nov 2006
The Junior Boys have made a solid second album in "So This is Goodbye"... which hopefully isn't a bad omen. Because it would be a shame to quit when this electro-indie band is still making good music -- smooth dance beats and satiny vocals, with a heavy dose of chillout and downtempo.
It opens with a string of hiccupy blips, and soon a breathless voice murmurs, "You're two faced.../all sideways.../you're dry-eyed.../and night fly..." A funky rhythm kicks in, keeping the spare beats from sounding too dull, but it's still only an introduction.
The good stuff is with "The Equalizer," a solid beat that regularly softens those cold beats with stretches of shimmering downtempo. Then they change the same formula for "First Time," which is a pretty trip-hop sound that gets sprinkled with sharp computerized beats. Not catchy, just so you know.
That mix of sharp beats and downtempo continues as the album trips on. The melodies are fragile, the beats are robust -- they glide through the vaguely ominous "In the Morning," cascade through the bittersweet sound of "So This is Goodbye," and jerk through the robotic "Caught in a Wave." The ending song, "FM," is a surprisingly soft finale, with a very soft melody and those computer beats.
Perhaps "So This is Goodbye" has only one real flaw: the songs tend to blur together over the listening period, since the beat/chillout ratio is the same for most of them. So it might take a few listens before this one really pops in your head.
But that ratio is very good -- the chillout electronica lulls you, and the cold robot beats snap you out of the trance. And while the first song strives to be catchy, the later ones abandon that in favor of experimental sound and chilly soundscapes, flavoured with the occasional burst of static.
Jeremy Greenspan's voice is the opposite of full-bodied. He sounds drained, worn-out, as if he's wandering around in his own wintry music. This impression certainly isn't hurt by lyrics like, "stay awhile/we don't have long/we could talk for hours/till my strength is gone/though I get so tired/I still get wired/my pulse is still... I'm like a child."
A delicious mishmash of hard electronica and soft downtempo, this chilly little album is a solid second album for the Junior Boys. Not to mention a bad way to go into winter.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Synth pop classic!, 12 Sep 2006
When was the last time you saw a new Synth Duo..and I don't mean Orbital. I mean a proper one with a bloke singing and another bloke twiddling knobs?! About 1985? About time we had a new around I reckon....bring on Junior Boys!
This is Junior Boys 2nd release, and its quite a progression from their debut 'Last Exit' . The basic formula is the same, the songs evoke classic Synth pop like Kraftwerk, New Order, Human League, Depeche Mode, Pet Shop Boys, Yazoo, OMD, Japan and (mid 80s) Cabaret Voltaire but with a cutting edge production that stands up with current Electronica and will please most fans of all things bleepy and bloopy (me included) . However this time there is a much greater variety in the songwriting, and this a more accessible and upfront album than before.
They plough a similar furrow to Hot Chip, but without the wackiness that occasionally threatens to derail the latter's otherwise sublime recordings.
Its an almost brilliant record....but at times you'll wish for a bit of Hot Chips humour as the title track, and the penultimate track "When no one cares" are a bit maudlin and doomy, and lyrically rather clumsy. They're perhaps going for a bit of Scott Walker feel but it doesn't really come off and just sounds rather flat after the thrilling pop gems that comprise the rest of this lovely record. Still the production is crisp and gorgeous throughout, there are plenty of enjoyable hooks and 8/10 great tracks on a CD ain't bad is it?
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Chill out ambient trance pop for homesick robots, 19 Dec 2007
Wow, I didn't expect it to be this good. There has been a surge of interest in electro and synth pop in the wake of electro-clash, and the Junior Boys is probably one of the most promising developments to date. This is a very subtle, seductive album. To begin with I only really enjoyed the title track and Counting Souveniers, but the other tracks have since grown on me. The beats are hypnotic, there's no other way to describe it, by gently so. The layering over of different rythmns is the best I have come across in years, the way the tracks build slowly. It's some of the best dance music I've ever heard. And then there is the vocals - gentle, fragile, beautiful, eloquent and seductive. I've listened to this album over and over again since I got it, and I still can't get it out of my CD player.
The most obvious influence to compare the Junior Boys to is the Pet Shop Bopys - two men, electronic music, smooth vocals. While the lyrics are probably as memorable, you can sense the influence of 1990's dance in the Junior Boys music. Trance was mostly awful, but when it was good the tune would improve with each layer of rythmn added, and (assuming you were dancing) after a while, your body could anticipate when another layer woudl be added. This is what you hear in the junior boys, albeit with the urgency of trance replaced by an ethereal calm, but the layering and building of the rythmn is still there.
This is the best album I have listened to this year, and some of the best electro-pop you will ever hear.
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