Johnny Foreigner – You Can Do Better

Long running Birmingham, England noise-pop act Johnny Foreigner is a pretty big deal within its little corner of the universe.  Their prior full length, the ambitious seventeen song journey, Vs Everything, seemingly holds a coveted status amongst those in the noise scene for its ambitious but uncompromising hooks.  However, if you’re anything like me and have been living comfortably in a separate corner of the world, then this all may be news to you.  But you’re in luck.  The advent of Johnny Foreigner’s latest full length, You Can Do Better, marks a bit of a reboot and natural hopping on spot for newcomers.

After nearly a decade of existing as a three-piece, Johnny Foreigner has entered the age of the quartet.  The band gets to work with the addition of fourth member and second guitarist Lewis Herriot, offering up an accessible ten song mix of brash energy and fluffy resonance.  Songs like instrumental “Riff Glitchard” explore the enhancement with silken overlays and a dream-gaze haze, whereas those like “The Last Queen of Scotland” flaunt brash, angular chords that ambitiously corrode the poppier elements of Johnny Foreigner’s melody.  Throw in the fuzzed out vocal accompaniment of bassist Kelly Southern and you get tender yet ample opportunities for in-your an face noise-pop duet.  Standouts like “Wifi Beach,” “To The Death” and “Stop Talking About Ghosts” build up through layers of ragged cacophonic energy that sounds as if channeled through the melodic filter of indie stalwarts Death Cab For Cutie.  Operating at a fairly consistent range somewhere between Stagecoach and Tall Ships but with a clearer masterplan, a few tracks like “Le Schwing” skirt the noise-means-dissonance philosophy and openly embrace the pop conventions of Johnny Foreigner’s otherwise angular existence.

For the most part, You Can Do Better tends to guide listeners and drop them off at various jolting destinations.  For instance, album closer “Devastator” figuratively leads its audience to the exit and then leaves them swirling in the eye of a tuneless tornado of feedback and jumbled chords.  Similarly, “Wifi Beach” indulges in a mostly instrumental, late-song, art-punk bridge.  While cleverly executed, it’s not hard to imagine that these edge-heavy sounds may deter those who thought they were signing up for the initially conventional verses.  It’s a little “loose” to say the least.  Prolonging such erratic moments leads to the realization that Johnny Foreigner knows that its existing audience has a tolerance and appreciation for the unexpected, and thus delivers.

As a starting point, You Can Do Better has the potential to grow on listeners – even those venturing from their comfort zone.  While most reviews approach this as a masterwork of noise-pop, my hesitancy rests in my modest appreciation to the much loved noise genre.  That being said, Johnny Foreigner still offers up plenty of appreciable moments for a skeptic like me, so the band must be doing something right.  While the spastic experimental breakdowns might be a bit much, there’s far more worth praising than getting hung up on.