On September 21, Joyce Manor will release their fifth full-length effort, Million Dollars to Kill Me. The album follows 2016’s critically lauded release Cody.
Today, Joyce Manor have shared a lyric video for the title track from Million Dollars to Kill Me. With its Britpop-esque hooks and driving guitar riffs, Million Dollars to Kill Me centers on Joyce Manor’s understated-yet-poignant lyrics (e.g., “Nobody tells you it hurts to be loved”).
Produced by Converge’s Kurt Ballou, Million Dollars to Kill Me came to life at Ballou’s own GodCity Studio in Salem, Massachusetts. During the recording process, Joyce Manor guitarist/vocalist Barry Johnson, guitarist Chase Knobbe, bassist Matt Ebert, and new drummer Pat Ware slept right upstairs in bunk beds. “Kinda felt like camp,” Johnson notes. Additionally, Million Dollars to Kill Me was mixed by Andrew Scheps (Weezer, AFI, Green Day).
While Cody focused on growing up, Million Dollars to Kill Me looks at what happens next: reckonings with love, money, doubt, confusion, and the hope that persists despite it all. Throughout the album, Joyce Manor augment that tension with their layered guitar work: Knobbe’s uncommon ability to make songs sound sadder and tougher at the same time, Johnson’s flair for mixing minor and major chords to invoke a precise kind of overpowering melancholy.
Co-founded by Johnson and Knobbe in L.A.’s South Bay, Joyce Manor released their self-titled first album in 2011. The band made their Epitaph Records debut with Never Hungover Again, a 2014 effort that Pitchfork hailed as “their most ambitious and diverse album, as weird as it is instantly enjoyable.”
MILLION DOLLARS TO KILL ME TRACKLIST
Fighting Kangaroo
Think I’m Still In Love With You
Big Lie
I’m Not The One
Million Dollars To Kill Me
Silly Games
Friends We Met Online
Up the Punx
Gone Tomorrow
Wldflowers
JOYCE MANOR – NORTH AMERICAN TOUR DATES
Tue 9-Oct Woodstock, NY Colony
Wed 10-Oct Boston, MA Royale
Thu 11-Oct Brooklyn, NY Brooklyn Steel (16 plus)
Fri 12-Oct Asbury Park, NJ Asbury Lanes (18 plus)
Sat 13-Oct Washington, DC Black Cat
Sun 14-Oct Philadelphia, PA Union Transfer
Tue 16-Oct Columbus, OH Skully’s
Wed 17-Oct Cleveland, OH Beachland Ballroom
Thu 18-Oct Toronto, ON Opera House
Fri 19-Oct Detroit, MI Majestic Theatre
Sat 20-Oct Chicago, IL Vic Theatre
Mon 22-Oct Madison, WI High Noon Saloon (18 plus)
Tue 23-Oct Minneapolis, MN Cedar Cultural Center
Wed 24-Oct Des Moines, IA Wooly’s
Fri 26-Oct Denver, CO Summit Music Hall
Sat 27-Oct Salt Lake City, UT In the Venue
Sun 28-Oct Boise, ID Neurolux (21 plus)
Tue 30-Oct Vancouver, BC Biltmore Cabaret (19 plus)
Wed 31-Oct Seattle, WA Neptune
Thu 1-Nov Portland, OR Wonder Ballroom
Sat 3-Nov San Francisco, CA Fillmore
Sat 19-Jan Los Angeles, CA Hollywood Palladium
**10/9-10/20 w/ Vundabar, Big Eyes
**10/22-11/3 w/ Vundabar, Peach Kelli Pop
**1/19 w/ Jeff Rosenstock and special guests