Jackpot Juicer (Quantified)

Introduction

Jackpot Juicer is Dance Gavin Dance's tenth and most recent studio album, and some say it’s their most popular yet. It’s also the only physical album I own from them (if you’re reading this, DGD, please send the rest!). I’ve always been drawn to this album’s chaotic energy, especially my favorite track, “For the Jeers.” As a data scientist, I couldn’t resist digging deeper—so I ran each song through Librosa, a Python library for audio analysis, to see what the numbers could tell me about this record.

The Tech: How I Explored the Album

I used Librosa to analyze the WAV files of all 18 tracks on Jackpot Juicer, pulling out a few key metrics:

• Tempo: Beats per minute (BPM)—how fast each track feels.
• Onset Rate: Events per minute—a measure of complexity, capturing riffs, beats, or vocal hits.
• Spectral Centroid: Average frequency in Hz—higher values mean brighter tones, like crisp guitars or sharp vocals.
• Chroma Features: Pitch class intensity—showing which notes (like A or G#) the track leans on.

I also created visualizations for each song: waveforms with onset markers (red dots for every riff or beat), chroma spectrograms, and centroid trends. Tracks like “For the Jeers” have so many onsets—284 per minute—that I had to make the markers faint to keep the waveform visible.

What the Data Revealed

1. “For the Jeers”: Why It’s My Favorite

“For the Jeers” has always been my go-to track on this album, and the data helped me understand why it resonates so much. Its tempo is a steady 115 BPM, slower than the album’s usual pace. But what really stands out is the onset rate: 284 events per minute, or nearly 5 riffs or beats a second. That’s a lot of energy packed into a slower framework, and it creates a rhythm that feels deliberate, almost teasing—like the song is playing with you, building tension before letting loose. It’s also bright—3369 Hz, the second-highest centroid on the album—making the guitars and Andrew Wells’ vocals really stand out. The most striking part is that it leans heavily on an A-note, with a chroma mean of 0.7745—the highest single pitch class value in the album. That focus creates a riff that just sticks with you, and I think that’s why I keep coming back to it.

All 98 onsets as faint red dots—you can feel the 284/min intensity.

2. “Ember” Has the Fewest Onsets

“Ember” stood out with the lowest onset rate: 152.79 events per minute. That’s a big drop compared to tracks like “For the Jeers” (284 events/min) or “Pray to God” (327 events/min). It’s got a tempo of 120.19 BPM and a centroid of 3182 Hz, which are pretty average for the album.

3. “Have a Great Life” Has the Highest Tempo

I noticed that “Have a Great Life” has the highest tempo on the album at 161.50 BPM. Most tracks average around 120-130 BPM, so this one really stands out as the fastest. It’s got an onset rate of 207.50 events/min and a centroid of 2936.09 Hz, and I thought it was interesting to see that speed in the final track of the album.

4. “Untitled 2” Is a Quick Intro and an Outlier

“Untitled 2,” the opener, caught my eye as a quick intro and a bit of an outlier. It has the lowest spectral centroid at 2634.75 Hz, compared to brighter tracks like “For the Jeers” (3369 Hz) or “Feels Bad Man” (3377 Hz). Its onset rate is 249.43 events/min, which is moderate, but since it’s a short track, that’s fewer total onsets than a longer song like “For the Jeers” (284 events/min over 4 minutes). It’s got a tempo of 129.20 BPM, pretty average for the album, but its role as a brief intro makes it stand out from the rest.

5. “Cream of the Crop” Starts Strong with Onsets

“Cream of the Crop,” the second track, caught my eye with an onset rate of 286.72 events per minute—one of the highest, just behind “Pray to God” (327 events/min) and a bit above “For the Jeers” (284 events/min). Its tempo is 147.66 BPM, and its centroid is 3089.61 Hz. I thought it was cool to see such a high onset rate so early in the album—it really sets an intense pace right after “Untitled 2.”

“For the Jeers” (red) stands out—bright and dense, breaking the pattern.

“Pray to God” takes the lead, with “For the Jeers” (red) close behind.

The Raw Data: See the Numbers for Yourself

Below is the raw data for all 18 tracks—tempo, onset rate, and spectral centroid (chroma features omitted for brevity).