“It’s a miracle that I got this far.”
It’s no secret that a tracklist’s length can make or break an album. Many decry albums that contain too many, or too few tracks, either due to a perceived lack of substance, or perhaps an abundance of needless ‘padding’ to make it seem that an album has more to offer than it does. However, I believe the hinging point of a record’s length is in that substance, and in its ability to captivate an audience from beginning to end. I believe Jackpot Juicer, Dance Gavin Dance’s tenth studio album, achieves this with grace. Be it through the album’s absurd consistency, or just a general sense of the band hitting a creative apex so to speak, something about Dance Gavin Dance’s brand new record just works.
Let’s address the elephant in the room: there have been some major hiccups in the Dance Gavin Dance camp as of late. I won’t be dwelling on them too much, but they bear mentioning. The tragic loss of long-time bassist Tim Feerick understandably hit the band and its surrounding communities hard, and while the unceremonious exodus of similarly tenured vocalist Tilian Pearson certainly hampered public opinion surrounding the band in a time that can only be described as tumultuous, there’s still much to celebrate about Jackpot Juicer.
Namely, this is Dance Gavin Dance’s first full studio effort with Eidola vocalist Andrew Wells as their permanent rhythm guitarist and secondary clean vocalist. This is something I’d been hoping for a while, all the way back to Wells’ stellar features on the band’s 2018 effort “Evaporate”, as well as his gorgeous, crooning verse in 2020’s “Nothing Shameful”. Truth be told, if the cards following this chaotic time in the band’s career end up leaving Wells as the band’s lead vocalist, I would be ecstatic. His performances across Jackpot Juicer on highlight tracks “For the Jeers”, “Swallowed By Eternity” and many, many more provide some of the most buttery-smooth vocal delivery across the entire record, chock full of infectious melodies and a truly gorgeous vocal tone.
Further, drummer Matt Mingus provides his strongest performance to date on Jackpot Juicer; replete with tight grooves, rapid pace drumming and tasty fills galore. Of course, founding guitarist and band leader Will Swan’s guitar work is as expectedly noodly and wacky as ever, but there’s an extra added level of grit to some of the guitar work here that gives Jackpot Juicer that extra layer of oomph needed to set itself apart from Dance Gavin Dance’s now ten studio records.
Some of these grittier moments are heightened by another barnstormer performance from screaming vocalist/lyrical absurdist Jon Mess. This is especially apparent on the aforementioned “Swallowed By Eternity”, as Mess lays down some truly menacing sounding screams over some dark metalcore-y chugs from Swan. Similar to the progression we saw on Afterburner, Mess continues to expand his vocal style here too; with a mix of his iconic mid-screams, alongside some truly impressive pitched screaming, and some more low-mid-range screams to provide a higher sense of contrast and dynamics in his performance.
Of course, with an album with the pure length of Jackpot Juicer, it’s hard to get down into the nitty-gritty with each and every track here as I would with a shorter record. However, there are still a few key moments I want to highlight, as there is a lot to love on here for seasoned Dance Gavin Dance fans. Openers “Untitled 2” (a not-so-subtle callback to 2007’s Downtown Battle Mountain) and “Cream of the Crop” contain some absolutely gorgeous string arrangements to usher the record in with a truly heightened sense of epicness, as cheesy as that word sounds.
Mid-album cut “Ember” contains one of the most infectious choruses Dance Gavin Dance have ever crafted as Pearson croons “Let me back inside, I surrender, we can make this right.” Lastly, the album’s final three-song stretch with “Pray To God For Your Mother”, “Swallowed By Eternity” and “Have A Great Life” is probably the strongest closing stretch that the band have written to date. Gorgeous vocal melodies, as well as a mesmerizing vocal interplay between Pearson, Mess and Wells work to form the pieces of what is, undoubtedly, the most explosive final moments of any DGD record thus far.
Despite some internal turmoil leading up to its release, and an (admittedly reasonable) amount of skepticism surrounding the album’s length, Jackpot Juicer might just be Dance Gavin Dance at their best. In spite of being a whopping 18 tracks, and over an hour in length, the seminal swancore outfit have crafted their most electrifying, consistent and varied release to date. The album’s runtime is a lot to ingest all in one go, but is made easier by much of the Swancore outfit’s very strongest material thus far. This is all owed to its core members, both new and old, truly hitting a peak of synergy (ha) and creativity on the record. It all feels so very bittersweet given the controversies and tragedies that have surrounded the band as of late, but whether Jackpot Juicer is a final send-off, or a glimpse into the band’s future, I don’t think they could have pulled it off better.
9/10
Jackpot Juicer will be available Friday, July 29th via Rise Records, and you can find pre-orders for the record here.