Review
Joyce Manor
Of All Things I Will Soon Grow Tired

My hopes weren’t set high in regards to the second album by Joyce Manor. Even through all the praise and acclaim their self-titled album received, it didn’t separate the fact that the band was super young and just starting out. Their debut reeked of freshness and harkened back to beginnings of bands like Jawbreaker, and Alkaline Trio. So there it was; a nice little collection to digest and easy to remember by heart.

Of All This I Will Soon Grow Tired is more of the same, but with less of that freshness and immediacy you once got. Running through these nine songs (one is that Buggles cover that everybody covers), in just over thirteen minutes is a serious case in repeated listens. It’s almost too simple to get a grasp of, and that’s why punk rock is awesome. In the case of Joyce Manor though, what seemed to work for them before is actually dragging them down because you know they are capable of something greater.

But not all is lost. A real highlight to mention is the vocals of lead singer Barry Johnson. His awkward gruffness has been mostly replaced with cleaner singing and it’s warranted because the songs are cleaner produced which is a good fit. He shines on tracks like “Bride of Usher” “Violent Inside” and acoustic closer, “I’m always tired”. And speaking of acoustic, which was an interesting choice, the band goes even further with some voice samplings and spastic feedback on opening track, “These kind of ice skates”.

Guessing from those little bits of experimentation, the band perhaps wanted to make something bigger than the product here. Signing to Asian Man records was a nice stepping stone, but to be in their shoes at the height of year end praise from tons of sources, it’s perhaps easy to understand the anxiousness they must have felt when making this. And the album in fact seems to represent that; angst ridden, optimistic and confused. A reflection of the band at a certain stage. We all can understand that can’t we?

What I’d like to see the band do now is make another album right away. These songs are good, but feel like part of something much larger. I believe that analogy to be their discography. These boys proved they can make good songs, so they need to keep that momentum going. This album slips in like an EP between an even greater full length, and I know they have it in them to one day make that album.