Joyce Manor
Joyce Manor

Release Date: 2011 | Tracklist

What separates California band Joyce Manor from the rest of your basic cookie cutter pop-punk bands is the abrasive quality of their music. Typical standards of pop-punk include polished cleans, clear production and more-than-user-friendly guitar riffs; Joyce Manor do none of these. Their debut self-titled full length is near nineteen minute ride through dissonant, messy and unfriendly chaotic riffs joined together by a trembling, exacerbated vocalist that, when put together, crafts one of the more interesting releases in recent memory. Although stretching the boundaries on what counts as pop-punk, Joyce Manor somehow makes all of this work in their ability to somehow make these off-timed riffs one that can’t helped but make the listener nod your head to in unison. From the rough and tumble opening riff of ‘Derailed’, where the melody is so loosely kept together that it threatens to lose all cohesion in the song, to the Gatsby’s American Dream-esque track ‘Constant Headache’, Joyce Manor keep hinting at becoming an unfocused mess yet somehow they manage to keep composure all throughout the short life of the album.

Joyce Manor is over before you even know it, with the shortest track barely clocking at over a minute in length, and most tracks averaging around the minute thirty markers. This works to Joyce Manor’s advantage insofar that it keeps the listener attentive and focused throughout the album. Because it might be somewhat of a chore to fully to listen because of the oddly abrasive nature of Joyce Manor, it is best to let each song resonate with the listener before simply diving into the album. But Joyce Manor, when fully realized, is a treat of an album from a very young band that shows very real potential. No so much a breath of fresh air as it is a reimagining to a genre that is easy to think that all the steps have been realized.

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4.1 excellent

Rank: #57 for 2011