Joyce Manor, I Used To Go To This Bar
Written by Mia Holtzman
Joyce Manor is relentless on their seventh studio album I Used To Go To This Bar. At nineteen minutes, Joyce Manor wastes no time. Each song reads as a journal entry; unfiltered, reflective, and casual.
I was extremely hesitant going into this album. In all honesty, I was not much of a fan of Joyce Manor’s previous works. They simply weren’t my taste. Despite this, they won me over on the first track, “I Know Where Mark Chen Lives”. It’s punchy, and it honors the style of their earlier works, while improving upon it. Vocalist Barry Johnson harnesses the feelings of remembering choices made by a less-than-developed frontal lobe. We then progress to more laidback tracks with “Falling Into It” and “All, My Friends Are So Depressed”. The latter has a country tilt, a tone that will carry over to other tracks on the album. It features something exceedingly rare in the pop punk and emo scene: a man acknowledging wrongdoing and apologizing for it. In all seriousness, it is easy to see how this track gained mainstream traction.
Each song on I Used To Go To This Bar has a distinct musical identity, and the album as a whole rejects homogeneity. In my opinion, the eponymous song on the album is a standout track. “I Used To Go To This Bar” features driving guitars that border on anxiety-inducing. The tone of the song comes across as almost trying too hard to be positive. It creates a really unique sound when paired with a subject processing grief throughout the song. It is followed by “After All You Put Me Through”. Although I tend to like bass-driven songs, this song felt vocally uninteresting compared to the rest of the album. Despite this, the lightness of the synth towards the end of the song added some nice texture to the track and balanced the bass well.
“Well, Don’t It Seem Like You’ve Been Here Before” was easily my favorite on the album. It is a rerecording of a 2009 demo titled “Fuck Koalacaust” released on Songs From Northern Torrance(2020). The resulting track is much more polished and leans into the feeling of urgency, rather than the angst of the previous recording. We are also graced by a little harmonica riff during the breakdown of the song. It imparts a bit of the Western and folk inspiration that is signature to this album.
The album, as a whole, distinguishes itself from Joyce Manor’s existing body of work by leaning into the band’s folk punk inspirations, while making room for mellower and more synth-driven tracks. They effectively convey frustration, grief, and angst while avoiding coming across as whiny; a feat many bands of the genre do not successfully achieve. I Used To Go To This Bar exemplifies Joyce Manor’s maturation and is perhaps their best work to date.
