Joyce Manor - Of All Things I Will Soon Grow Tired - Asian Man

7.0/10

Punk Rock has seen some interesting times. The boom of the 90's provided exposure to a lot of people who didn't see it lasting forever. Those people ended up saving what little money they made, using their new found success or connections to put out records in order to keep the natural progression of the music coming. Thanks to those people, we have bands who build their buzz through word of mouth and their live shows - Joyce Manor is the highest example of a Punk Rock buzz band.

 Since the release of their first full length, which held a handful of jaded anthems seeping with the 90's slacker vibe and dense lyrics full of dark humor (ala Jawbreaker), videos of shows brimming with energy have popped up all over Youtube. We now know that the best way to track a bands popularity in independent music is the internet; how many blogs are talking, how many last.fm/spotify plays you're getting, how many Tumblr posts are tagged with your name. Things are different than when Joyce Manor's influences were around.

 But is the band really worth this buzz? Unfortunately, we don't get an answer from "Of All Things I Will Soon Grow Tired" which holds nine tracks and clocks in at only thirteen minutes. The shortness of the record almost seems like a huge tease from a band. The build-up from fans was immense, and the initial reaction may be disappointment - but for what it is, even if it doesn't prove the band worthy of it's attention, it doesn't disprove it either. This is still a good record.

 On one hand, we have signature tracks such as "Comfortable Clothes" and "If I Needed You There" (the best one on the album) which sound plenty like more of the full length, but the band plays around with different recording styles on "Drainage" (an acoustic downer) and "I'm Always Tired", which almost sounds as if it was recorded for a Plan-It-X records compact disc.

"Violent Inside" feels like a song from another buzz band, the Menzingers. The difference is that this band can't dive into that strange area of middle-American sincerity. All of their music seems to have a feeling of being a loner and reading like a personal diary, rather than a tour diary or a Bruce Springsteen song. And it's refreshing.

 Every song on this record doesn't sound the same, and that's a step in the right direction. Hopefully the next effort for this band can actually hold the feeling of a complete full length, and they can take the sounds they experimented with here to create something cohesive and awesome, rather than just awesome.