Junior Boys: Night Walk

By Kerry Doole

Junior Boys - Night Walk (City Slang): The Hamilton-based electro-pop duo of Jeremy Greenspan and Matt Didemus has earned an international following, and the just-announced news of a new album will cheer those fans. Waiting Game, the sixth Junior Boys studio  album, will be released on Oct. 28, on City Slang. This is six years on from the previous record, 2016's Big Black Coat, but the new single and video Night Walk suggests it'll be worth the wait.

The opening pulsing beat of the track fades into a mellow and atmospheric tone, with Greenspan's rather hushed vocals adding to the ambience. Gently beguiling.

Greenspan explains in a label press release that "Night Walk imagines a missing person who has no desire to be found. They are being searched for by day, and can only go out at night. The daytime itself is an invasion of privacy and the night city is a camouflage." The accompanying video, edited by Mike Jerome, uses footage from the TV show Night Walk captured in and around Toronto's Yorkdale subway station in 1986.

The release further explains that "Waiting Game finds Junior Boys in a tender and contemplative mood' compared to their more melodic, danceable releases — a frame of mind informed both by the early days of the Covid pandemic, and Greenspan's walks through Hamilton's lake and waterfront trails with the music of older heroes in his ears: Kraftwerk's Florian Schneider, Jon Hassell, McCoy Tyner, John Martyn and Sly Stone."

Greenspan notes that Waiting Game is intended to give the listener some breathing room -  "I like the idea of people putting it on a home and exhaling in relief, even if that relief is tinged with some sadness." Album guests include multi-instrumentalist Colin Fisher (Caribou) on saxophone and Bonjay vocalist Alanna Stuart.

Since the last JB album, Greenspan co-produced and mixed two albums for fellow Hamiltonian Jessy Lanza and built a recording studio in his home city, employing top US engineer Lou Clark to create a studio that prioritized a synth room and a mixing room. 

Junior Boys will tour North America in early 2023 on their first headlining trek of the continent in seven years, performing songs from all five of their albums and other rarities with help from an expanded touring band. The trek begins in Edmonton on Jan 17, followed by Calgary (Jan. 18), and Vancouver (Jan. 20), with a March 4 Toronto date closing out the tour. Check their full itinerary here.

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Publicity: Paul Brooks, Take Aim Media