My First Days on Junk, No Order

by dave heaton

The genius of My Bloody Valentine was that there were great pop songs within those fierce, dreamy clouds of sound. The members of the Vermont band My First Days on Junk understand that. On their second album, even better than their first, they pay tribute to the dream-pop, "shoegazing" legends of the past by following the same path, and doing it well. Colin Clary and the other four musicians (two of whom play with Clary in the Magogs and Let's Whisper) take sad, sweet little pop songs and then layer walls of noise around them. That atmosphere makes the songs grand and dramatic. It gives them immediacy; it emphasizes the wild, fleeting side of life.

"It's About Us Breaking", the first song title declares…as in, our hearts have been broken and we're healing them by wrapping melodies in feedback. Much of the album is melancholy, bittersweet, but at the same time exciting, as we indulge in a feast of both loud electric guitars and bouncy bubblegum harmonies. It's an aesthetic that evokes fast cars and blurring city lights, but the heart of the songs is often wistful longing and regret. "Count Me In, I'm Good to Go" and "I Will Do Anything" bury the vocals within gorgeous noise, turning the songs into shy love letters from the children of rock n' roll. "Life of the Party" has a swagger to it, a strut, befitting the figure the song addresses, who wants to be a star in the sky, the life of the party.

There are breaks from the volume, as there should be, though the breaks never last long, as they shouldn't. A fine cover of the Lucksmiths' "A Little Distraction" is mostly a moment of quiet rest, though there's a great place partway through where everything explodes for a few seconds.

Also as it should be is the way the album comes to a close. The second-to-last track, "Walk in the Rain", begins as a slow crawl, really creeping along, and then builds into the noisiest, most explosive song on the album. When the fever breaks, feedback sticks around like a hangover, slowly lifting away. The final track, "Waiting for the Ride Tonite", is the morning after to that one, but oh wait, it's still the same night and anxiety is still hovering. And disappointment – the last line of the album is "I always thought you'd be the one…"

{www.statecapitalrecords.com, www.myfirstdaysonjunk.com}