So This is Goodbye — Junior Boys
Domino
2006
Rating:


Just as M83's Anthony Gonzalez put aside the loss of bandmate Nicolas Fromageau to make 2005's "Before the Dawn Heals Us," Junior Boys' "So This is Goodbye" finds Jeremy Greenspan constructing a full album for the first time without co-founding member Jeremy Dark. Though Dark left the group before the completion of the Junior Boys' long player debut "Last Exit," his imprint was left on most of the album, especially on the album's best tracks "High Come Down," "Birthday" and the title song.

Greenspan and former-engineer-turned-partner Matt Didemus cope with this loss through a break-up album that's by turns remorseful, sexy and venomous, but always as elegant as the best electronic music.

"So This is Goodbye" manages New Order's dichotomy between danceable beats and despairing lyrics. This is best encapsulated in lead single "In The Morning," a composition of fluttering, arpeggiating synths, chain-gang uptakes of breath, a gentle guitar lick and Greenspan cooing "the night's not over / We're not getting older / They can chase forever." The sexy groove is maintained for the title track's skipping counter-melody despite Greenspan lamenting "this creature of pain has found me again."

"The Equalizer" is bitterer than the relative "Before Sunrise"-hope of "In the Morning," with upbeat ragged squelches of analog and laptop snare beats serving as a counterpoint to the vitriol of lyrics like "Springtime, you're gonna wish that we were friends, / That we talk, you'll never feel so sure again."

Darkness falls with the stinging melancholia of "Count Souvenirs" and the "Brokeback Mountain"-evoking, specific imagery of "Your favorite shirt / A little dirt / Builds inside the bedroom drawer / Cause all the paint and all the stains / All the papers and the fumes / They're all of you." "When No One Cares" is a more beautiful kind of sadness. Covering an old standard popularized by Frank Sinatra, Greenspan's blue-eyed, soulful voice stands tall amidst an atmospheric, beat-less melody.

"You'll forget me soon I fear," Greenspan breathily laments on closing track "FM." That seems like an impossibility after listening to this cohesive album of sensual longing.

Posted Friday, December 1, 2006

Link to this review:
http://filmzeus.pressbin.com/music/junior.boys/so.this.is.goodbye