Joyce Manor broke out on the strength of a blisteringly catchy debut album that had basically crossed enemy lines. The band was held in high regard both by fresh-faced, college-age music fans flocking to the band’s emotionally ragged lyrics as well as by the bearded, beer-swilling Peter Pans whose annual holiday weekend falls right around whenever The Fest kicks off. But Joyce Manor was, and continues to be, a band far bolder than its peers in either scene. From the new wave and lo-fi tendencies of its sophomore album (which they quickly left in the dust by punking out the songs live) to the divisive stance it took on stage-diving at shows, Joyce Manor was cut from a different cloth.
No doubt its second full-length for gigantic indie Epitaph Records and fourth overall would feature subtle musical risks and less aggression after the amplified and somewhat settled-in sound they forged on 2014’s Never Hungover Again, especially that record’s mid-tempo first half. Given the band’s range of obscure DIY punk influences, it’d be hard not to deem the laid-back, pub-rock, pop-punk flavor of opener “Fake I.D.” as a nod to prolific Midwestern act Tenement. “Make Me Dumb” opens with the biggest and perhaps most minor-key guitar riff its ever laid down, though it’s hastily abandoned for an upbeat tale of warm nostalgia.
Following “Fake I.D.,” though, is where the overarching themes emerge. The band checks into the perspective of a slightly beat-up, downtrodden character on “Eighteen,” picking up from “Fake I.D.” and digging into the concerns of young adults. It’s a demographic the majority of Joyce Manor’s fan base falls into, sure, but the band manages to home in on familiar characteristics—confusion, heartbreak, discovery, selfishness, and apathy—even as its members enter their 30s.