The first album from Jeremy Greenspan and Matt Didemus — better known as Junior Boys — in five years is something to celebrate. Not only that, but Big Black Coat, which is due out on February 5 of next year, finds the Canadian duo working with a new label, City Slang. Fear not, though — they’re the same sparkling synth sultans you’ve come to know and love over the last decade-plus. The time the boys have spent on extracurricular projects since their last album, from solo singles to production work, seems to have served them well in the making of their new LP.
Synth-pop, techno, disco, R&B, and electro influences abound. But as always, they’re put together in idiosyncratic, unexpected ways. For instance, how many other artists can you name who would bring synth-pop and U.K. bass flavors to a cover of Bobby Caldwell’s ’70s slow-jam soul classic “What You Won’t Do For Love?” Ultimately, Big Black Coat is the sound of Greenspan and Didemus reveling in their creative freedom and reaping its rewards.
“The fact that we haven’t put out an album in a long time has been liberating,” says Greenspan, “in that we haven’t been so phenomenally successful that everyone knows who we are. With this album, a lot of people will be hearing us for the first time. There’s a freedom that comes from that.”