Music Review // Joyce Manor "I Used to Go to This Bar" (Epitaph)

 https://joycemanor.bandcamp.com/album/i-used-to-go-to-this-bar

Every so often an album comes along that I feel like it's an all-timer.  Typically when I'm listening to an album on Spotify and it ends, Spotify will start a new song for me.  Based on many of the albums I've been listening to this year, Spotify has played for me the opening track on this album, "I Know Where Mark Chen Lives", more than once and it's certainly fun to sing along with the chorus of "Frieght train coming down the track / And it almost gave me a heart attack".  Other songs were also suggested to me and so going into this album feels somewhat familiar, but it also just has that way about it.

From artists such as Smoking Popes to the way the titular track opens up and reminds me of Sum 41,  Through the rocking, you're going to find a lot of catchy hooks in the chorus.  These are songs that you're going to find easy to sing along with, but it's not just that you're going to be able to sing along, you're going to want to sing along with them.  These songs are going to get stuck in your head ("Falling Into It" for example) and you're not going to mind because it will just make you want to put this album on and have a good time.

It definitely feels like "All My Friends Are So Depressed" is the type of song you'd think about as being emo, with the line "Keylime pie and Frampton live / Wish that I would fucking die", but even though it has this stoic way about the delivery, it isn't really sad or happy, it just seems to be as it is.   "Well, Whatever It Was" is also a song I really enjoy for the lyrics because it makes mention of Little Caesars, which used to be around here much more than it is now.  It's funny the song says "Lost my job at Little Caesars" when it feels like no one wanted to work at them here so they got closed.

Every year it really feels like more and more music is released, which is not a bad thing at all.  With that though, it becomes even more rare to find an album such as this one by Joyce Manor.  It has that feeling of familiarity while not being able to place an exact source.  You'll hear a song and think "This song sounds like it's ripping off..." but you can't figure out who because it's become that Joyce Manor sound and it just flows so easily.  Albums don't often check all of my boxes, but this one does and it's just catchy as heck.