Juicer : Retire The Fences

Once in a while I come across an album that hits me hard with a quiet, melancholy simplicity. It locks into gorgeous pop sensibilities while never being too sweet and sunny for its own good. Bands like Wild Nothing, DIIV, Shy Boys, and Beach Fossils to name a few lock into sounds of old and turn them into something modern and new. Touches of 80s college rock, early shoegaze, dream pop, and indie sensibility come together into this unique, singular, yet familiar sound. Like songs you hear in a dream, wake up, and can hear the ghost echoes of them for the first 30 minutes you’re up then they fade before that first cup of coffee.

Brooklyn’s Juicer is like that. Their debut album released in May of this year, Retire The Fences, captures those similar feels. Dreamy guitars, low key vocals, and minor chord melancholy is the name of the game in their sound. There’s moments of early 90s alt rock in the vein of Pavement and Archers of Loaf, but for most of the album’s 30-minute runtime this Brooklyn quartet lays out wistful dream pop of the highest order. No time is wasted, and no song lags.

If Juicer’s Retire The Fences had come out between 2010 and 2012 I’m sure these guys would have fit quite comfortably on Captured Tracks’ roster. You get that Wild Nothing/Beach Fossils vibes big time here. Bits of early REM in the drum and bass department, with clean, flanged guitar and low key, sleepy vocals that lull the listener into the band’s sonic world.

“Trickin” opens the album on a head-bopping note. Guitars hazy and wavering like primo Spooky-era Lush. And vocals not quite in the mix high enough to let you sing along, but there’s a sweetly shy vibe to it all that invites repeated listens. “Family Man” locks into Beach Fossils vibes, towing the line between dream pop and post-punk. Driving rhythm and shimmering guitars accentuate soaring, almost Alan Parsons-like vocals. There is a very Eric Woolfson feel to the vocals here that I can’t get enough of. “Why Don’t” has a bedroom pop vibe, bringing to mind Mac Demarco in his less skeezy moments.

The album ends on two slightly heavier and noisier tracks. “Bomb” buzzes in janglier sounds reminiscent of DIIV and mid-90s Nada Surf while keeping a touch of power pop in the chorus for good measure. Closer “Dream” moves along on a driving rhythm and hazy guitars that coalesce between early Ride and caffeinated jangle pop you’d find on those first few years of Flying Nun Records’ roster.

Juicer’s soaring, jangly debut Retire The Fences is a glorious slice of dream pop, jangle rock, and indie rock that will put a smile on your face and pep in your step. It’s the musical uplift you’ve been waiting for all summer.

Buy ‘Retire The Fences’ here.