It's All True

Junior Boys consistently find themselves in a peculiar position. The Hamilton, Ontario duo are equally indebted to the elegantly refined side of 1980s synth pop (think Scritti Politti's Cupid and Psyche 85 or Japan's Gentlemen Take Polaroids) and to the endless permutations and micro-genres of post-acid-house electronic dance music. Unfortunately, a surprising number of their fans only like one of those two styles, and often complain whenever their less-favored one takes precedence. (Many of the club kids didn't care much at all for 2009's Begone Dull Care, for example.) But on their fourth album, Jeremy Greenspan and Matt Didemus go a long way toward quelling the quibbling, synthesizing both strains of their musical DNA into a hybrid form. This results in tracks like the truly wonderful "ep," a warmly melodic pop song featuring Greenspan's most confident and full-throated vocal (a far cry from his usual near-whisper) that fades out on a minimalist synth pulse, and the hypnotic nine-minute epic "Banana Ripple," mixing big beats and big hooks in equal abundance. Respectful nods to the past crop up here and there: the chorus of "A Truly Happy Ending" recalls Cece Peniston's '90s dancefloor anthem "Finally," and "Second Chance" less-subtly lifts its beat from George Michael's "Monkey." But for perhaps the first time in their careers, Junior Boys now sound like more than the sum of their dueling influences.