An image of Joyce Manor from 2012

Joyce Manor ‘I Used To Go To This Bar’ Review: Nostalgic Heartbreak ★★★☆☆

2 mins read

Joyce Manor is back on familiar ground with I Used To Go To This Bar, an album full of anthems for their aging emo audience.

Since their last album 40oz. To Fresno in 2022, their DIY contemporaries, PUP and Jeff Rosenstock, have both released projects reflecting on their nostalgia and love of the scene.

Joyce Manor’s reflection is wrapped in a morbid obsession with death. Album closer Grey Guitar plays with the anthemic qualities the LP presented earlier to dive deeper into obsessing with the fear of dying through the repeated lyrics “I said ‘I think Danielle’s Dead'”.

The thanatophobia the band is experiencing is toyed with during I Know Where Mark Chen Lives, a song that fits perfectly into the mould you’d expect from a Joyce Manor song: a catchy repeated chorus of “freight train coming down the track, and it almost gave me a heart attack”, crunchy vocals from Barry Johnson, and a neat under two-minute runtime.

I Used To Go To This Bar clocks in at only19 minutes, making it a tight blast of emo nostalgia that doesn’t overstay its welcome.

The theme of love and growing older is one that’s also established across the album, appearing early on in the sickeningly sweet ballad Falling Into It, as vocalist Barry Johnson wanders through a story of finding love and letting it wash over him.

Outside of the standout tracks discussed above, I Used To Go To This Bar lacks the same powerful punch their early work had, but maybe that’s just nostalgia talking.

Featured Image Credit: Saul Torres via Wikimedia

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