Joyce Manor – Self Titled

I was not expecting this. Not at all.

Released by 6131 Records, recommended to me by some hardcore fanatics, and sporting the weirdest album cover photo in recent memory – Joyce Manor came out and reminded me that not everything always sounds as you’d expect.

Deviating from their regular hardcore signings, 6131 Records have found a gem in Joyce Manor – a band that is nearly impossible to classify under one simple genre moniker.  In a way they’re a pop-punk band, but only in the same way that an act like Captain, We’re Sinking could be described as “pop-punk.”  This is raw, searing stuff – with a heavy emphasis on the raspy sing/screamed vocal delivery. There’s also a heavy Jawbreaker influence that seeps through every note and harmony (Leather Jacket for example) as the vocalist sings with the sense of complete desolation just like Blake Schwarzenbach. Lyrically they take a cue from the famed frontman, but add in a bit of sardonic wit like Rivers Cuomo and Weezer as they sing lines such as “I could hear you coming so I hid by the couch. You were talking so loudly, I don’t know what about. You were drunken than high school, self-conscious and sweet. I never ever felt so cool disguised in your sheets” or “Famous friend, why are you coming around again? All of your stories start our boring but I’m laughing until I’m crying in the end.”  Plus, is any line better than “It made me think maybe human is not such a bad thing to be”? I think not.

These lines are not simply sung, but rasped through the speakers as if the singer’s on the breaking point; creating a sincere sense of passion that is so rarely attained on the album (yet another similarity toCaptain, We’re Sinking). The entire album pushes the boundaries for what you’d expect a pop-punk album to sound like (if, for argument’s sake, we decide to label the band as pop-punk) – and the vocals are just the starting point.  There’s not so much a sense of melody or harmony as there is a sense of chaos and cacophony through staccato riffs and raw production quality. They walk the line so well that once step to the left could turn Joyce Manor into a grating noise experiment, but they’re able to balance it all to ensure that it stays unique without compromising listenability (and yes, I know that’s not a word).

Joyce Manor have delivered a consistently solid album front to back. Some tunes stand out more than others (Call Out, Beach Community, Famous Friends, Leather Jacket and Constant Headache are the highlights) but not a single song becomes filler. In fact, as you look back at the track list you’ll realize “hey, I loved Derailed and 21st Dead Rats too; and Ashtray Petting Zoo was pretty wicked now that I think about it…” and the highlights just keep piling on.

Raw, crunchy pop-punk with raspy vocals, cacophony melodies and depressingly witty lyrics crammed into a mere eighteen minutes – that is Joyce Manor and they reminded me that some of the best albums are the ones that come out from left field. Bravo boys, bravo.