JOYCE MANOR - I Used To Go To This Bar

"I Used To Go To This Bar" is the new album by Barry Johnson's Joyce Manor, now at their seventh studio effort. The almost emo energy of the opening track "I Know Where Mark Chen Lives" is essentially a bluff, a perfectly executed feint that throws you off the band's real intentions. Joyce Manor don't play emo, they play a breezy yet nostalgic power-pop that doesn't hide behind stylistic frills, but goes straight to the point, dragging into adulthood the attitudes and behaviours of a youth that's now long gone. Between a guitar riff and a Weezer-style melody, Johnson sings of withering love affairs and small-town depression, but always at a brisk pace, as if he were perpetually running late for life's most important appointments.

It seems the idea of speeding up the songs' tempo came from Brett Gurewitz, co-founder of Bad Religion and producer of the album, as well as owner of the label that released it, Epitaph Records. The result is more than positive. "I Used To Go To This Bar" is a short, immediate album, with little fuss and plenty of choruses. In short, if your commute is shorter than the latest Joyce Manor record, you'd better hold on to that job, and give the Torrance band a chance.

Among the most convincing tracks is the original blend found on "All My Friends Are So Depressed", which navigates between alt-country and melancholy jangle-pop, sketching out a sort of Morrissey in cowboy boots and hat.

There's no shortage of cheerful pop-punk sing-alongs either, with choruses stuffed full of gang vocals ("Well, Whatever It Was"), but what lingers at the end of this brief journey - nine songs in barely 20 minutes - is a feeling of mild ache brought on by the closing "Grey Guitar", a gut punch with absolutely no warning. Whether Danielle is alive or dead doesn't matter - it's the unfillable void she leaves behind that makes the difference.

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07/02/2026