Junior Boys – So This is Goodbye

When it comes to electronic music, the brand that Junior Boys has created is definitely some of the easiest to get into. Accessible and yet heady with minimal tendencies, the kind of music this duo crafts is both masterfully composed and easy to get lost in. Their second album, So This is Goodbye, focused on a brighter kind of sound than their first album and before the moody soundscapes of Begone Dull Care, the cover art fittingly portrays the kind of music behind the veil. The title track rests at the heart of the album and starts with a slow burning shroud of color. The synthesizer is the only constant here with everything around it acting as pure atmosphere. There’s a foggy sort of dissension and the lyrics are pointedly poignant, “So this is goodbye, no need to lie.” This is the kind of album you could play at the dark of night, in your bedroom, with nothing but your headphones surrounding your ears as the beats blast away. And when this song hits, it’s as if everything lets loose: a certain kind of blissful swaying and easily one of the album’s many highlights.

Before the album ends, you get this other song that also begins with a cloud of atmosphere: bits and pieces of robotic sounds before the piano takes main stage. At first I was floored with the lyrics about feeling entirely alone when no one is around to vent to, or to love, “When No One Cares” is a Frank Sinatra cover. The version by Junior Boys removes the strings from the original and replaces them with pacing keyboards that lightly glimmer in the background, because the star of the show here is the aching vocals. “You’re like a star that dies…and seems to keep on dying.” On Sinatra’s version there is this huge cascade of strings that definitely support, but don’t take over. Instead, Sinatra’s voice melts with the strings and although I’m still a fan of the version by Junior Boys, there had to be Sinatra suffering heartbreak and finally coming out of his shell for us to even have “When No One Cares.” It’s always awesome to listen to such sad words when there is no current sadness in the heart simply because you can take everything at face value; instead of being entirely sad with it. If that makes sense – either way, great music all around. – Bryan