Junior Boys

Add Date: June 14 

Artist: Junior Boys 

Album: It's All True 

Label: Domino 

Genre: Electronica, electropop 

Comments: One of the brightest and most engaging bands making electronic music these days, the duo Junior Boys returns with another fantastic album in It's All True. I almost hesitate to use the term "electropop" to describe the band, for fear that you'll automatically lump Jeremy Greenspan and Matthew Didemus in with the myriad artists who catch your ear with a synthesizer; still, at its core, this is indeed pop music that's largely electronic in nature, so there you go.

Though we're not talking about straight-up dance music, album opener "Itchy Fingers" might fool you--it's one of the most up-tempo, club-ready songs that Junior Boys have ever recorded. But the beat slows down on the 6-minute-plus, R&B-tinged "Playtime", and this constant shifting-of-gears is one of the things that's made the band worth following through four LPs now. Indeed, there are plenty of twists throughout It's All True, from the pop gems "A Truly Happy Ending" and "Second Chance" to late-album numbers like "Banana Ripple" and "Kick the Can", which bring to mind the band's friend and collaborator Dan Snaith of Caribou.

It should come as no surprise, but Junior Boys have delivered one of the best electronica albums of 2011. Check out tracks 1, 6, 4 and 9.