Begone Dull Care (Bonus Track Version)

Album Review

Taking its title and inspiration from a collaboration between animator/filmmaker Norman McLaren and jazz pianist Oscar Peterson, Begone Dull Care is, at once, the most upbeat and subtle album from Junior Boys yet. At first, these songs seem to lack distinction from one another, but the duo's painstaking attention to detail and nuance — traits they recognized in McLaren's work — gradually glints through, however briefly. Other than the hypnotic "Work" and the playfully geeky "Hazel," the set is punchless, more a pleasant mood album fit for casual background listening, lacking the unnerved tension that runs through the majority of Last Exit and So This Is Goodbye. The most daring aspect of the album is the title, in particular its second word.