Joyce Manor – ‘I Used To Go To This Bar’ album review: Self-assured and snappy
Joyce Manor has always released short, snappy albums. On their latest release, I Used To Go To This Bar, the California punk band provides a smorgasbord of melodic bite that stops just shy of a whole feast.
The Skinny: Across their free-wheeling seventh record, Barry Johnson, Chase Knobbe, and Matt Ebert make their boldest move yet with an intentional move towards pop. I Used To Go To This Bar‘s best feature is its sonic versatility, as the punk stalwarts lean closer to pop melodies and catchy soundbites, propped up by a clean-cut production.
While many punk bands utilise a fierce, unyielding wall of sound as a kind of safety net, or a surface-level semiotic insistent upon itself (and the usual feelings of disenchantment at the heart of alternative music), Joyce Manor flexes their musical tendons with a host of versatile instruments that play only in service of the listener.
Take ‘Falling Into It’, directly inspired by Vampire Weekend’s latest eclectic release, Only God Was Above Us, which amalgamates a strong electronic guitar line, an accordion sound, a syncopated drum beat, and lord knows what else, all under the two-minute mark.
The album also features a rotating cast of drummers, including Joey Waronker, fresh from the Oasis reunion tour. The approach certainly works to bring out the personality in each offering: on ‘The Opossum’, the drums fire on all cylinders, charging forward in a pseudo-march while a muted, rotund bassline wobbles up and down a scale, while the title track rests upon a hi-hat energy often characteristic of pop-punk patterning.
However, for all their SoCal sense of humour, their full-steam instrumentals, and their catchy melodies, on this release, Joyce Manor stop just shy of greatness. Throughout, a certain chemistry is lost between the lyricism and the overarching mood. Take ‘After All You Put Me Through’, which sees Johnson downbeat and exhausted, while the song itself can’t quite decide between groovy and grisly. In comparison, ‘Grey Guitar’, a moody jerker of a track with suitably brooding guitars, is a five-star ending.
The Verdict: Joyce Manor deserve their incredible reputation. On I Used To Go To This Bar, the band is self-assured and as snappy as ever. It’s a good record; save for a few missteps in tone, it could certainly be great.
Defining Track: ‘Grey Guitar’
Release Date: January 30th, 2026 | Producer: Brett Gurewitz | Label: Epitaph Records
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