With the Mitchell Report still warm and baseball players busy explaining that, no, what they actually took was B-12, there's probably never been a better time for a band called the Cansecos to release an album called Juices! (exclamation point theirs). The Cansecos, oddly enough, are a duo hailing from Toronto, the only Canadian city that still has a Major League Baseball franchise, and they know exactly what they're doing, playing off their name and the title of Jose Canseco's steroid memoir (they even released a couple of lengthy remixes under the title Juiced! to pave the way for the LP). It makes for amusing background noise as you take in their second full-length, highlighting the light touch the duo often brings to its analog synth-heavy electro-pop.
The first time I listened to Juices!, I was disappointed-- it seemed like a letdown from their fantastic self-titled debut (2003). And in some ways it is a letdown, lacking much of the immediate appeal and memorability of its predecessor, but what it loses from the debut it mostly makes up for with interesting textures, complex beats, and slow-growing tunes that get to you on subsequent listens. Bill Halliday and Gareth Jones seem to have focused less on making a pop record and more on something you can just groove to whenever you feel like it.
A good example is "Raised By Wolves", a song built around a scant handful of lyrics, most of which consist of the heavily processed vocals singing the line, "I was raised by wolves." The repetitive vocal is given a world of constantly shifting electronic soundscapes and modern r&b beats to roam through, and the result is hugely entertaining. The duo's more traditional vocals still have the same deadpan quality as on the debut, but they've gotten much deeper into manipulating the sound of their own voices, breaking out the vocoders and computers to create a range of different tweaked tones.
"Rise Up" barely even has a verse melody-- the verse is more of an ethereal haze of voice and whirring, buzz-toned synth driven ahead by a jumpy bass line-but the chorus rises up from the ether to deliver the album's most anthemic moment, as the beat crystallizes into a shiny disco pulse. "Nothing New to You" has a sneaky hook sung by electric aliens, "Clear Blue Sky" mixes a crisp beat with dreamy, soft tones, and "Lunar Landing" sports a frenetic, clicking rhythm track that palpitates under a chord progression that takes its sweet time.
Juices! is a different kind of Cansecos album, and though it will likely appeal to fans of their debut, those listeners shouldn't come expecting another "This Small Disaster" or "Are You Lonesome Tonight?", because that type of song isn't here. What you do get is an enjoyable album of electronic pop that reveals itself slowly, revering the beat and texture of the music above all else but still allowing the hooks to peak through.
