“In the Morning”
from the album So This is Goodbye
2006
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And here to quell the notion that Junior Boys caught lightning in a bottle with 2004’s beloved Last Exit is “In the Morning,” which is not only your first tip that the forthcoming So This is Goodbye might be every bit as dazzling and adventurous as their debut (it is), but also, by some distance, the best thing they’ve ever done. Where Last Exit was all (post) post-coital whispers and moans, So This is Goodbye is glinted with welcome salacious touches, and nowhere do we get them more clearly than here. It begins briskly, with a sawtoothed keyboard arpeggio, some Thriller-era vocal hiccuping, and a robust snare that rumbles like a fridge door before snapping back on itself. “Girl, the night’s not over,” sings Hamilton, Ontario’s foremost Romo revivalist, on his way to evoking the youthful escape fantasies that ruled New Pop: “We’re not getting older/ They can chase forever.”
With the arpeggio, plosives and snares as its foundation, the beautiful arrangements alternate between leaning on gushingly melodic phrases and skittering counter-rhythms for support. Everything overlaps seamlessly — the verse and the chorus blissfully interchangeable, all pushed forward by that rhythm — up until around the three minute mark, when things swell to a sudden build and the Boys introduce a shrill firecracker synth riff that sounds like one of Lil Jon’s, albeit pitched up and comically excited. As simple sonic moments go, its one of the most thrilling you’ll hear this year. As for the track, same — five minutes rarely rush by this quickly.