Little Junior - Hi [CD]

When power-pop foursome Little Junior were still performing at all-ages clubs around their native Toronto, a sound engineer asked what their setup would be for a show that night. Lead singer Rane Elliott-Armstrong answered the way he had so many times before: They had two guitars, a bass, and drums. “Oh,” the sound engineer responded. “You don’t have a sampler or an acoustic guitar or any of that gay shit?” Elliott-Armstrong, who identifies as gay, was aghast. “It was like, really? Come on man,” he says, recalling the experience.
And so Elliott-Armstrong wrote a song about the encounter, the snot-punk anthem ”Cry Baby,” from debut record, Hi. Clocking in at a nugget-sized one minute and 40 seconds, “Cry Baby” finds Elliott-Armstrong sneering, “I want to destroy my reputation / Tired of having boring conversations / I’d rather be / All by myself / Than be part of this scene they’re cultivating.”
True to form, much of Hi sounds like a clear combination of Pixies’ lo-fi basement punk with Weezer and Jepsen’s penchant for cheery sing-along melody. Helping Little Junior mold their debut in the studio is veteran producer John Agnello, whom the group calls “hilarious” and “a dream.” Though unapologetically upbeat, the album’s sunny tone is subverted by Little Junior’s petulant lyrics. Most of the songs, Rane admits, have a sardonic side and tend to be written in response to people who’ve “wronged” him.