JUNIOR BOYS

Junior Boys aim to gain traction

By The Burg Staff on Jun. 15, 2011
By Matt Ashare

Junior Boys Jeremy Greenspan and Matt Didemus get their brood on

Thanks to artists as wide-ranging and diverse as Brooklyn’s electrodelic MGMT, French funksters Daft Punk, and, well, even Death Cab For Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard with his Postal Service offshoot, synth-pop remains very much alive and, occasionally, kicking.
Four albums into a career that began auspiciously enough with a self-released 2003 EP, Birthday/Last Exit, featuring a remix by the Australian electronica master Fennesz, the Ontario-bred duo Junior Boys (who play the Jefferson in Charlottesville June 18), are still junior members on the growing list of neo-new wavers. Singer Jeremy Greenspan admits as much when he relents that Junior Boys’ last album, 2009’s “Begone Dull Care,” failed “to gain traction with people,” in a candid quote from the press release for the duo’s new “It’s All True.”
     That lack of “traction” might best be chalked up to something along the lines of an identity crisis: it’s never been quite clear whether Junior Boys have the dance floor, rock clubs, or pop charts in sight. And it can often seem like Greenspan, whose sad croon brings to mind the New Wave, New Romantics, and New Orders who populated post-punk Brit-ain in the ‘80s, and pro-grammer Matt Didemus, who now lives in the electronica capital of Berlin and favors an eclecticly techy mix of futuristic glitch-pop, hard House beats, and airy analog synths, are working at cross purposes. It’s no surprise, for example, that Junior Boys had their biggest international hit to date, the plaintive yet melodic, dance-friendly “Birthday,” when Dutch DJ Sander Kleinenber included it on his 2004 mix CD This Is Everybody Too.
     “It’s All True” opens on a more upbeat note: a panoply of giddy synths dance playfully around a fleet beat as Greenspan approximates a more soulful take on New Order frontman Bernard Sumner’s artless disaffection. Listen closely, though, and it’s hard to miss the sense of melancholy, the hints at unrequited love, and the generally downcast nature of the lyrics. “You look better if you’re lonely/And barely holding on,” is a typical Greenspan observation.
And by the end of the track, having used the analogy of a fly trapped in a window to describe someone (himself?) suffering from a bad case of tainted love, he asks “Would you go back outside?/Out where they’ll crush you with a paper folded/Just to see you die/Just to see you die …”
     Didemus gets on the same sad page as Green-span in the deceptively titled “Playtime,” an almost painfully bittersweet slow-dance about a relationship that’s become so dysfunctional that mutual animus is the only glue still holding it together. “Come a little closer,” Greenspan nearly whispers, “Stare a little longer/Like competitors do/’cause this fight’s forever/And if it breaks up they’ll be nothing to do.” It’s a gorgeous slow-burner that, at nearly seven min-utes, seems to drag on for-ever, just like the end of so many broken affairs of the heart. And Greenspan gives Didemus room to indulge his inner electro-nerd on “Kick the Can,” a mostly instrumental display of programming prowess and shape-shifting electro-minimalism that still manages to deliver a suitable hook or two.
     Even if Didemus’ mode doesn’t always fit Greenspan’s mood, and deconstructed beats sometimes obscure the disc’s better lyrics (“Remember you’re still a lousy faker/Ten years ago at least just a burnt out raver/And now you need a favor/’cause you’re living in the past,” from the stuttering “Second Chance”), It’s All True is oddly accessible enough to bring Junior Boys at least one step closer to gaining that elusive “traction.” It’s also a disc that’s screaming out for remixes. So it wouldn’t be a total surprise if several of these tracks here find a life beyond the pop charts, specifically on DJ mixes in dance clubs.
     (Junior Boys perform Saturday, June 18, at the Jefferson Theater in Char-lottesville with Miracle Fortress and Birdlips; call 800-594-8499 for tickets.)
http://www.the-burg.com/blogit/entry/junior_boys_aim_to_gain_traction_with_their_new_its_all_true