CD Reviews

Junior Boys | It's All True

Domino (2011)

By RYAN REED | June 22, 2011

3.0 Stars

Talk about your misleading choruses: "You hide your itchy fingers well." Junior Boys sure as hell don't. Recently on full display at the band's Middle East show, the nine dense 'n' dexterous jams on It's All True — the fourth studio work from veteran critical darlings, Canucks Jeremy Greenspan and Matt Didemus — positively glow with busybody keyboard craftsmanship. With its disco-bass pulse, jet-engine synths, and seductive half-time chorus, "Itchy Fingers" kicks things off by demonstrating the Boys' finesse for tricked-out, ass-shaking programmed grooves. On the flipside, "Playtime" is a downright gorgeous space-ballad — with a Fender Rhodes and slick programming, it's moody as a stoner's den at 3 am. The deeper you dig, the more sonic treasures you find — check the subtle-yet-totally-badass synth mutations in the pocket funk of "You'll Improve Me"; the cinematic layers that propel mid-album highlight "The Reservoir"; and, most impressively, the electro-prog sprawl that makes up "Banana Ripple" — a nine-minute closer that somehow manages to transfix. At 52 similar-sounding minutes, It's All True is a bit of a robust meal to digest all in one sitting but, served in moderate portions, it's irresistibly tasty. Junior Boys: still itchy after all these years.

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