Alexis Petridis 

Junior Boys: It’s All True – review

The bloggers' favourites have at last found the tunes to go with their production skills, writes Alexis Petridis
  
  


It's an article of faith among certain bloggers that Junior Boys should be huge, but the reason they aren't is probably quite straightforward: their songs don't always match the deftness with which the Canadian duo weave cutting-edge dancefloor influences into their sound. Their last album, Begone Dull Care, highlighted the problem – as clever as ever, but lacking in hooks. Their latest was recorded after returning from an extended stay in Shanghai, and while its subtle melding of icy electronica with slick 80s R&B isn't a radical sonic departure, there's a definite sense of a band buffing what they do until it sparkles, and this time, the melodies genuinely engage you. Playtime swells and ebbs until it reaches a gorgeous coda; EP sounds like an actual hit single and the closing nine minutes of Banana Ripple offer an object lesson in how to balance dancefloor euphoria with a nagging, inescapable undercurrent of melancholy.

 

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