IN REVIEW: Joyce Manor - "Cody"

-

Coming in at just under 25 minutes, Joyce Manor's fourth album is epic in scale compared to their previous LPs (in fact, you can listen to the other 43 songs in their discography in about 73 minutes). It's also easily their most accessible record, housing some of their finest attempts at punk-inspired power pop to date. There's a lot of growth on display, a sense of maturity that will inspire more thought than stage diving (which they've taken a stand against, a bold move in the punk community they come from). While it doesn't offer much in the way of advice for the struggling young adults in its songs (like the underaged Kanye West loving protagonist of Fake I.D., the would-be lovers of Last You Heard of Me and the 26-year old still living with his parents of Stairs), Cody does offer a modicum of solace in that, as the cast of characters illustrate, not many of us have it all figured out anyway.

October 7, 2016 • Epitaph
Highlights Fake I.D. • Eighteen • Last You Heard of Me

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Year in Rock 2023: Honorable Mentions

-
Image
  Well, well, well. If it isn't Sound Bites temporarily coming back to life, suspiciously close to the end of the year. That must only mean one thing; well, aside from the author being supremely lazy and neglectful to his blog yet again. Yes, dear reader, it's time for Year in Rock. Look, I'm out of excuses as to why I can turn from cranking out content at a record pace to a full year of radio silence; suffice to say, this blog certainly isn't a priority in my life (which I have been rebuilding since my last post, but that's all personal stuff I have no desire to steal bandwidth from more deserving and important things). Sound Bites will continue to exist as a mausoleum for my personal music tastes, but it's not pivoting into self-help territory, nor is it roaring back to full-time status. I'll check in periodically, so as to say when there's something worth sharing. It might be once a year, it might be more frequently, but I definitely won't be gett
Read more

IN REVIEW: Hey Rosetta! - "Second Sight"

-
Image
There's a telling lyrical passage that stuck out to me upon listening to Newfoundland-based indie stalwarts Hey Rosetta's third full-length LP. During the uplifting, depression-battling anthem Cathedral Bells , singer Tim Baker exclaims, "the road is lit and I'm going home". It comes near the tail end of the album's most thrilling section of songs, during which the seven-piece (plus additional hands on deck for extra orchestration) take a formidable musical journey through several genres and moods. After exploring the arena-sized farthest reaches of Coldplay, the worldly rhythms of Vampire Weekend and the zealous, choral flourishes of Arcade Fire among others, it's the comfort of home that drives the group down the album's (pun intended, I suppose) home stretch. Long before we get to that point, however, we're treated to some of the band's most interesting material to date. The album starts with current single Soft Offering (for the Oft Suff
Read more