(t5!) Heroes Of The Zeroes Albums: #20: Junior Boys – Last Exit (2004)

How often can a musical artist claim that they created a sound that is ahead of its time? It’s easy to say that you’re “avant-garde” or “futuristic”, but very few have prophesized what will be a popular trend in the future. Examples? Kraftwerk were probably really proud of Trans-Europe Express during the 70’s. So was Gang Of Four’s Solid Gold for laying the pavement for all of the funky type of punk; Talking Heads’ Fear of Music and Remain In Light sort of prophesized “new wave”; Beastie Boys were ahead of its time with their sample-laden Paul’s Boutique; every hip-hop record after had to address Dr. Dre’s The Chronic in some way; Nirvana’s Nevermind, for better or worse, spawned Nickelback, Creed, and Three Doors Down.

It’s easy to say how “ahead of its time” albums of the past are; hindsight is 20/20, after all. But how do we correctly predict who from today will inspire the artists that our kids/grandkids will be listening to? If a blogger (or a user of whatever the popular media forum it is to publicly like the likes and hate the hates) from the future zooms in with his Delorean to notify us that so-and-so album will be a collector’s item because of its ultramodernism, who would it be? It’s impossible to answer! However, if I may be brash and brazen like Jimmy the Greek, I’m going to prognosticate who in the zeroes is going to be influential—the Junior Boys’ Last Exit have envisioned what pop music will be like in the future. Everyone’s going to sound like them. You heard it here first!

Having said that, the Junior Boys—like everyone else ever—are not without inspirations. We’ve heard this before from British garage/2-step’s heyday. Back in the day, almost everyone from Britain believed that 2-step was what lies ahead, but because it never caught in the States, it eventually lost its steam. Last Exit seemed to be the scion of the genre, taking the genre’s hyper-active production and fabulously cultivated rhythms. However, whereas 2-step can be audacious most of the time, the duo of Jeremy Greenspan and Johnny Dark architected this with a squeaky clean, subdued, twilight aesthetic. And the beats paired with Greenspan beaten-down vocals, Last Exit accomplishes the colorless soul it reaches for. The synth blips and high-pitched robotic backing vocals in “Bellona” are washed out to be pristine and minty fresh. We learn from “When I’m Not Around” that frostier is better. The silence and space-betweens of the title track is just as vital to its drive-home-alone-from-the-club mood.

You also can’t avoid recalling Timbaland from this, so maybe he’s the one that should be praised because their sound is an intermingling of the hip-hop/R&B producer’s prime cuts (which wasn’t too far away from 2-step as well) and MOR. Last Exit is jam-packed with glitchy, skittering re-imaginations of traditional AM pop. The concise, catchy, and soft tune of “Birthday” blooms betwixt the stuttering drum machine and glimmering synth tones. The maudlin temper of “Teach Me How To Fight” glides with the rippling snares and racing synth organ notes. The tight melody of “High Come Down” fluoresces when surrounded by strobing synth twinkles and start-stop electronic percussion.

Look, take it with a huge grain of salt when I’m calling this the sound of the future; it’s like a sports writer forecasting who will have a tremendous fantasy season. Like I said, knowing for sure is far-fetched, But after Last Exit’s release in 2004, we’ve already seen other musicians put out their version of frigid atmosphere (Burial and The Knife comes to mind right away). So hold on to your copy of Last Exit, there might be a time when you have to school your offspring about the sound that started their generation’s musical trend.