Although their press photos rub shoulders with the likes of Paramore and 30 Seconds to Mars, Johnny Foreigner spend their time touring with groups like Girls and Los Campesinos! on the regular. The hyperactive pop-rock on their latest release, Grace and the Bigger Picture, straddles the fence between the two groups like Harry Harlow's monkeys, unsure about whether the substance provided by one can negate the comfort provided by the other.
At their best, Johnny Foreigner are a radiant example of what post-twee is. In many ways, the antithesis of twee pop itself, post-twee adds stark observations, angst and education to the oppressively cheery genre. Optimism is replaced by pessimism, twangy hooks by distortion and elementary emotions by hyper-literate discourse, and Johnny Foreigner seem to understand this well enough.
""Choose Yr Side and Shut Up!"" is what Sum 41 should have been. The metal-based guitar trills provide a solid grounding for the angst-ridden yelps and propel the album with a sense of immediacy from the start.
Yet Grace is an excessively divisive record. It's a full-length LP, but it might as well be three separate EPs. ""I'llchoosemysideandshutup, Alright"" faithfully closes out the lead track's theme, wrapping up the pep and urgency of the album's onset with a dreary ode to ending a relationship for the fun provided by friends. ""Criminals"" follows with another upbeat romper that takes a more drawn-out approach to enthusiasm before concluding with one of the album's true standouts, ""I Woke Up On A Beach In Aberystwyth.""
The back third of the album is the real winner, highlighting the most successful components of their first two sounds in an amusing and coherent conclusion. Ironically enough, ""More Tongue, Less Heart"" accomplishes the opposite of what its name alludes to, scaling back the trudging vocals and focusing on an expressive discontentedness.
Primarily their lyrics reflect on absorbing harm and casting blame. Whether a missed opportunity or a frustrating encounter with a boy toy who refuses to make his intentions clear, they're never slow to point the finger, and the overarching theme of decisiveness pits an ‘us vs. them' hostility.
But what's so frustrating about Johnny Foreigner is that they lack a clear position. They see faults in everything but make no argument for remedy. They oppose themselves to most everything, but make no statement as to what it is they actually stand for. They find pleasure in parties and each other, but fail to align themselves with any individual ethos. Their attitudes are dependent on others, which makes ""Choose Yr Side and Shut Up!"" more of a plea for help than a hostile accusation.
There are enough appealing components of Grace to suggest that Johnny Foreigner are in fact a band worth our time, but ultimately, Grace's inability to choose a side and shut themselves up puts the group in a precarious position. People who like Paramore might get turned off by the post-twee yelps, while fans of Los Campesinos! might struggle to see value in the group's mindless indulgences.
At the end of the day, they're just pop songs, and at the risk of sounding like too much of a curmudgeon, there's enough pop music out there that actually says something for anyone to feel obligated to sit around with informal expressions. It's not that Grace is entirely mindless either. Whereas contemporaries like Paramore compliment their weightless discourse with directionless distortion, Johnny Foreigner at least accomplish instrumental coherence, thus revealing the schism. Musically, they align themselves with Los Campesinos! and other post-twee revolutionists; lyrically, they stand next to 30 Seconds to Mars and other MTV teen-punkers. They present two antitheses—style and substance—and they'll have a hard time being embraced by devout followers of either until they finally choose a side. Music listeners aren't wire and twine; we're real people and we want commitment.
