Review: Joywave Releasing New Album 'Possession'
- by Phil Arnold
- in Reviews
Joywave have been growing a considerable following, helped largely by their high energy tracks and excellent live performances.
Their new album, ‘Possession’, which will be released on the 13th of March, has already had a stream of singles released from it, all having a high energy with a synth dominated dancefloor feel. The direction and theme of the album takes a deep look into the world of control and our potential lack of it, with some interesting insights into political and personal journeys that motivate the listener to pay close attention to the direction of the lyrics. Having already played with some of the world's leading live performers like Bastille and The Killers to name a few, the US based band have gained high profile slots at some of the worlds biggest festivals and are set to become one of the industries most prolific, original and high energy acts with the release of their new album.
Over the last few months, Joywave have released a variety of songs from the upcoming album, with high energy tracks like ‘Half Your Age’. This song has a real flow to the construction, with a feel that crosses genres and times, the song has hints of the early 2000 indie pop bands, but with a production and edge that make it very much a tune of the 2020s! With quirky synths that don’t add a distraction, the whole song is a blend of very clever lyrics and well executed harmonies and other backing vocals that move and create a wonderfully full sound to the track.
In contrast to ‘Half Your Age’ ‘Blank Slate’ has a slower, more elongated vocal, again with great use of vocal arrangement to fill the sound, but the melody is far slower, with a completely different vibe to ‘Half Your Age’. Both tracks are catchy, with a well designed hook that takes you to the main message of the song. As the track progresses, it builds in energy and leaves you feeling that you’ve been taken on a great audio ride. Similarly ‘Like A Kennedy’ has a slow start, but provides a more stable song, that stays well within the feel of the beginning. The parody of the assasination of Kennedy is played throughout the song and video, but the instrumentation is far more traditional in terms of formation. It is well produced, but with less reliance on electronic backing. You can clearly hear more piano, guitar and strings that give the full sound here. We also have a guitar solo that, in the video is played in the mock up of the car that drove Kennedy along the Dallas streets. Whilst that touch is unique to the video, the solo itself and the whole musicianship on this song is quite special. Joywave are clearly not only fantastic songwriters and a tight live band, but each instrument, vocal and feel of the production is top class.
Where next for an album track would you go? Well if you take ‘Obsession’, you’re in another completely different place. There’s a 'Panic At The Disco’ feel to this, although in the back of my mind I am hearing Savage Garden and I don’t know why! ‘Obsession’, like the other tracks mentioned, its' written excellently with catchy vocal lines, but this is much more of an electronic piece and very high energy. It works as a contrast excellently and I think that the whole album will keep audiences entertained for a long long time.
Joywave are fresh, they are relevant and most importantly for me, they are fantastic musicians. I strongly recommend people to go and listen to the upcoming album, and whilst you’re there delve into the back catalogue and you’ll see that there are yet more genres of music that these guys can execute wonderfully well. Great band, great album!
Album tracklisting
1 Like A Kennedy
2 Coming Apart
3 Half Your Age
4 Obsession
5 Blank Slate
6 F.E.A.R.
7 Funny Thing About Opinions
8 Who Owns Who?
9 Blastoffff
10 Possession
11 No Shoulder
12 Mr. Eastman
Indie-rock Indietronica
