Artist: Junior Boys
Album: Big Black Coat
Release Date: February 5, 2016
Label: City Slang
The downside of being an audiophile is the constant waiting for new material from your idols. The struggle for eargasmic ecstasy is far too real.
Such was the case with my beloved, Junior Boys, before I saw them Friday at the Casbah. Long ago, I fell hard for the glossy electro-pop/r & b hybrid that paved the way for acts like Disclosure and Grimes to take hold of my nebulous consciousness. I clung to their last glittering gem 2011’s It’s All True, as I waited for the next iteration of their genius. “A truly happy ending” from that album resonates so deeply, I still wonder if it was pulled straight from my beating heart. Five years in musical terms is an eternity- bands have come together and then ceased to exist, the internet has morphed the music industry far beyond recognition, we lost the irreplaceable, God-like Bowie- and yet, there I sat, still waiting.
The duo, having been around for 12 years, took a necessary hiatus to reinvent themselves. In the process, they completely transformed the way they wrote songs. Gone are the near perfect phrases and ultra stylized beats, replaced now with a vulnerable and impulsive, rawness that was palpable on stage. The crowd set ablaze in a trance interlocked with the synthy melodies. Jeremy Greenspan’s silky, sexy voice descended into the grey matter in our minds, meanwhile Matt Didemas wove a scintillating spell of sound.
The new album, Big Black Coat, exhibits their influences openly, exposing us to the Kraftwerk + 70s disco combo we always needed. My new favorite, a cover of the jazzy classic “What you won’t do for love” takes the song into breathy, spacey new heights that you won’t want to stop climbing. Another standout is “Love is a fire” which, with it’s catchy repetition is like the incessant thoughts of your love interest that distract you and make you smile over and over again. The wait is finally over, and the journey to Big Black Coat was well worth the long wait.