Album Review: Begone Dull Care - Junior Boys

Junior Boys: the auditory equivalent of perfection through design. A Junior Boys record feels like slipping on a perfect new jacket, firing up a sports car in the show room, turning on that pristine new MacBook Pro.

They have always had that feeling and, in all likelihood, probably always will. Above all Junior Boys produce shimmering 80s influenced pop music and Begone Dull Care does not meddle with this formula. If you didn't like either of the first two albums then you are unlikely to like this.  If you have accused their sound of being over-produced then you still will.

Having said which, if you don't like either of the first two albums then BlackPlastic has concerns for your ability to judge anyway.

Begone Dull Care is more of the same in the best possible way - it takes what was great and refines it. It is a more positive, slightly more upbeat affair, and more than ever this feels like a duo in mastery of their sound. By focusing on just eight tracks here it truly sounds like an album where every single beat, bleep and vocal has been obsessed over.

The whole thing is very beautiful, with the kind of rarified sound BlackPlastic would expect from a Blue Nile release or something similar, where years have been poured into each song. The shimmering pop feels fare to cared for to be 'just' another album.

If BlackPlastic were mean it would suggest that, maybe, a little live instrumentation could have made this great album classic. Just listen to what a touch of trumpet did on closing track 'Lullaby' from Morgan Geist's Double Night Time last year.

BlackPlastic isn't feeling mean however so we simply say: some music dulls with repeated listens. Like a child force fed cotton candy: the novelty wears off. Other albums reward the listener for making repeated visits, growing, maturing with age. Begone Dull Care falls into the latter case. Get it now because when you play this in ten years it will sound so much better for the memories it will then hold.

Available at Amazon.co.uk on CD and LP .

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Album Review: Double Night Time - Morgan Geist

Some songs sound like a tumble down the stairs into the warm embrace of a brand new lover: they are full of excitement, adrenalin an gimmicks. Others rely much less on tricks and instead focus on quality and longevity. BlackPlastic has two upcoming reviews, with one falling into each of the above categories.

Unsurprisingly, Morgan Geist's new (and to BlackPlastic's knowledge, first solo) album Double Night Time contains songs that resemble the latter template rather than the former. Put it on your CD shelf and it WILL be judging you, your frivolous Ed Banger CDs, that ridiculous Hadouken! album, the fact that you have a secret admiration for the Wombats.

Because, without doubt, this album is too good for you. What you have in Double Night Time is a beautifully crafted body of work. An album where every click, drum pattern and synth line has been carefully considered, fretted over and perfected.

Yet there are the odd duff moments, like on instrumental 'Nocobo' for example, where the ideas just seem to lack the pizazz of the releases of Geist's other project Metro Area. The occasional dry patch is more than made up for elsewhere, however. Following in the footsteps of last year's 'Most of All', which itself features here, many of the songs here feature vocals from Junior Boys' Jeremy Greenspan. And the result is never less than glorious - 'Detroit' is pure sophistication, shimmying on by like the best lay you never had whilst 'Ruthless City' boasts a minimal approach to pop that shows what you can do with a bass line, a bit of synth and a few snippets of the right vocal. Greenspan's vocals are just made for this shit - the subtlety of the instrumentation complimenting perfectly the understated nature of his voice.

Yet despite how good a combination Geist and Greenspan make, Double Night Time's best track is completely instrumental, the relaxed yet haunting 'Lullaby'. Minimal and intelligent, it largely reflects what makes Geist's music great on the whole. The trumpet that carries the melody through to the album's finish is a fitting end to an set that sparkles.

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