Somehow the release of this one escaped my notice at first. I thought I was pretty in tune to knowing when albums were coming out these days, but I didn't find out about Join Us until almost a year after it came out. Talk about dropping the ball. I don't remember a lot of fanfare accompanying the release of this album. I don't recall reading any reviews of it or seeing any sorts of advertisements. In a weird sort of way it was cool because it sort of took me back to the pre-internet days when I was surprised to discover John Henry had been released.
So I was behind the game a bit in listening to this. At first it kind of didn't make much of an impression, but as I've been listening to this more it makes me happy to say this is a really solid album. They're once again giving you a lot of songs for your dollar at 18 tracks, and they seem to have really returned to form here. I don't detect any obvious stinkers, while there are some damn catchy tunes on here that could have easily fit on their earlier albums.
They've honestly always opened their albums strongly and this one is no exception. I think the first four tracks are quite good, and it doesn't even drop off much after that. Who would have thought they could be this solid so late in their career? Especially as they'd already gone through a bit of a rough patch.
There are plenty of their trademark quirky lyrics and catchy melodies on display. 2082 is an odd but amusing tale about traveling into the distant future and somehow finding that you're still alive. Meanwhile When Will You Die is quite upbeat for what amounts to some pretty dark subject matter. They've definitely paired catchy happy melodies with dark lyrics dating all the way back to their debut, so this fits in well with their canon.
As much as this album is a throwback in some ways to their old days, they still manage to try a few new tricks on here. Spoiler Alert features both Johns singing two different vocal melodies at the same time. It works surprisingly well and you can kind of focus on one, the other, or both and almost hear three different songs. Dog Walker utilizes some pitch-shifted vocals in a manner somewhat reminiscent of Ween. The Lady and the Tiger features a spoken word verse over an almost hip-hop beat. That's the kind of thing that could have been a disaster, but they manage to pull it off.
I've been listening to this album more in preparation of reviewing it and I have to say that overall I've been pretty impressed with it. I could imagine bumping the rating up a little. As it stands I'm just not as familiar with this album as the early stuff because it hasn't been around long enough for me to have the same level of attachment. I think I can safely say that if this album had come out in the 90's I would have loved it just as much as their other albums from that era. It's good, man.
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