Joyce Manor
Of All Things I Will Soon Grow Tired
Asian Man Records (2012)
Sounds like: modern pop-punk with a twist
Score: 5/10
Place yourself in this scenario. It’s Friday night, and you’re channel surfing. You roam the vast worlds of cable television, searching for something that will garner your attention for a couple of minutes at a time. You come across reruns of great sitcoms, cheesy infomercials, and ads for sex toys on this binge, and you know what? You enjoy the short segments of random television you manage to catch. Author’s note: I’m sure you’re wondering how this can possibly turn into a review. Well, here it is: Imagine these segments as the nine short tracks on Joyce Manor’s second full-length, Of All Things I will Soon Grow Tired. Think of the channel surfing as the flow of the record, and the album’s stupendously short length (13 minutes) as the time it takes you to fall asleep.
The first two tracks, “These Kind of Ice Skates” and “Comfortable Clothes” introduce cleaner vocals and a more refined style. Lyrics by singer/guitarist Barry Johnson are still as good as ever and the music is overall more poppy and reminiscent of 90s emo bands such as Hot Water Music with a twist. These first two songs compliment each other wonderfully and would seem like a solid start to the new record, right?
It’s during the third track, “See How Tame I Could Be,” when things begin to lose steam. This overly-poppy song is backed by digital drums and bass tracks with a twangy guitar at the forefront. This, and the following track “Drainage” (an acoustic ballad featuring a cello and a piano) feel extremely out of place and remove the energy brought on by the opening two songs, which is a shame because the first two tracks picked up almost right where their beloved self-titled record left off.
Things start to pick up again in the middle of the record starting with a brilliant cover of The Buggles’ hit “Video Killed the Radio Star.” Oddly, one of the longer songs on the entire record, the band adds a punk rock punch to the 80s hit. The cover makes use of the band’s two singers to cover the supporting vocals in the original. The energy continues in the quick, simple tune, “If I Needed You There” which transitions into the nicely crafted, Smiths-influenced number, “Bride of Usher.” Fans were able to stream “Violent Inside” weeks before the album’s release, and the poppy tune sounded good enough to be a radio single.
Ultimately, I found Of All Things I Will Soon Grow Tired extremely disappointing. Many songs lack the depth and catchiness fans enjoyed from the band’s self-titled record. And while the good songs are there, they seem as if they’re only fragments or ideas for songs to be released in the future. The record feels thrown together and the choppiness makes it difficult to enjoy as a whole.
Joyce Manor has proven that they can write great songs. But for now…I’d rather channel surf.
-Ian Caramanzana
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