reviewed by Laura Stanley
Earlier this summer, Jack described Sheila Beach’s EP Walk Home as “100% Peterborough, ON” and lauded it for its deliciously lo-fi production, and messy pop-punk vibe. If Sheila Beach is for the walk home after a night out in Peterborough, Prime Junk’s Sunnyvale is for the morning after.
Like the sand at Sheila Beach, Prime Junk is coarse. Sunnyvale sounds like it was recorded in a dryer at the Wash-O-Mat or after too many nights in a row at the Pig’s Ear. It’s wonky pop-punk that has been washed by the summer sun and is a direct, unfettered line from the heart of Ms. Junk.
In opener “Gone,” Junk’s anxieties spiral out of control – “I’m terrified, worrying about all the things that could go wrong,” she sings with more than a hint of panic in her voice – right alongside the swirling mess of instrumentals but in the following track “Glacier” her anxieties have melted away and we find her fiercely telling off an asshole and repeating, “I don’t miss you at all.”
After a dip in the polluted “Ocean” and a ride on its back to pass the time (“Surf Brat”) Sunnyvale ends on an experimental note. “Why Not” – a collaboration with Nick Papi – is a dark, drone-y track that finds a ghost-like Junk floating above a pulsating synth. Whether it’s the result of two friends messing around or a sign of where Prime Junk is going, it’s an entrancing EP closer.
The identity of Prime Junk (the self-proclaimed “LORD OF THE TRASH”) remains a mystery but her feelings and fierceness do not.
Best served with headphones
Top Tracks: “Glacier”; “Why Not (Nick Papi feat. Prime Junk)”
Rating: Young Hoot (Decent)
