Audio By Carbonatix
Soulfulness can come from unlikely sources. For electronic duo Junior Boys, that means the industrial Canadian city of Hamilton, Ontario, and the considerable pipes of improbable-looking frontman Jeremy Greenspan, a pale, sunken-eyed, slightly shaggy guy in his middle years.
Junior Boys formed in 1999 with Greenspan and producer Johnny Dark. They recorded and released two 12-inch EPs, including several songs which made it onto their 2004 full-length debut, Last Exit, before Dark left to be replaced by Exit engineer Matt Didemus. Over their three albums since, including this year’s It’s All True, Greenspan and Didemus have carefully refined Junior Boys’ sound: icy synth lines and rigidly funky drum-machine beats melted by Greenspan’s steamy singing.
Greenspan has grown into his voice dramatically over the years, leaving behind the misty whispering of the band’s early releases to embrace a more full-throated soul crooning. At the same time, while Junior Boys may have initially lost some of the rhythmic complexity of Dark’s R&B-derived drum programming, they’ve more than eclipsed that early draw through a steady enrichment of their sonic palette — from bedroom beats to something more closely approximating the high gloss of bigger-budget pop.
It’s All True is, simply, the best-sounding album Junior Boys have yet produced.
