Album: Junior Boys / Begone Dull Care

Artist: Junior Boys

Album: Begone Dull Care

Following on the very good So This Is Goodbye, we find Junior Boys in fine form and growing in confidence. Inspired by the work and methods of NFB animator Norman McLaren, these tracks are meticulously constructed, carefully orchestrated works. Working with longer tracks — most clocking in over six minutes — the album gets off to an excellent start with the slow-simmering "Parallel Lines", and for a couple tracks, the album sounds like a real world-beater. While it remains full of interesting countermelodies and details at the edge of the frame, it doesn't quite maintain its momentum throughout. But because of the textures and hooks, it's never less than good listening.

Yes, it uses the elements of 80's dance-pop, but it never comes off as retro-fetishism. Jeremy Greenspan and Matt Didemus simply use these sounds with surgical precision to craft some excellent tunes. This doesn't have a monster single like Goodbye's "In the Morning", but it's still eminently worth listening to the whole way through.

Track Pick: 1 - "Parallel Lines"