Canadian duo Junior Boys will drop their second album this summer, but its cold, distant, synthetic sound doesn’t particularly fit the season. Emotronic (like an unpassionate Erlend Øye) lyrics wash over quick, disparate arpeggiations forming a pharmaceutically numb rhythm made for an igloo or some lonely European basement, not the beach. More for if you have to spend the night indoors by yourself after getting a horrible sunburn.
Heavy breathing smears lines, and instead of creating an exciting dynamic with the staccatoed beats, it just falls between inspiration and melancholy. Röyksopp these boys are not, but perhaps Röyksopp Junior. As with most things, the Canadian version just ain’t that good. If Last Exit wasn’t really an exit, then So This Is Goodbye isn’t really a goodbye, and the gap in the sincerity is as wide as the music is frigid.
