The Joy Formidable
February 24, 2009
If you’ve followed this site for a while, you might know I have a severe weakness for female-fronted indie pop bands, so it’s no surprise that I was immediately taken by Welsh noise-pop trio, The Joy Formidable. They fit their name perfectly, their music is punchy, melodic, and uproariously joyful. The band’s blend of dream-pop and alt-fuzz and Ritzy Bryan’s gleeful, belted-out vocals, have garnered them comparisons to Asobi Seksu and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
“Cradle” is an in-your-face pop explosion. The layered hooks grab you immediately and don’t let up for the entire song. The track is pure enthusiastic, noisy pop with a stomping drum beat and anthemic vocals. It’s been stuck in my head for days, and I’m sure you’ll feel the same way. “Austere” is a bit more shoegazy with some great vocal interplay going on (the backing vocals feel like they’ve been snapped out of the disco era). Again it’s the infectious melody that really makes the song stick. The band is giving away a mini-LP, A Balloon Called Moaning, that includes these two tracks (which you can also download below) and a few more. You can get it on the band’s website. Awesome!
***
For the second year in a row my favorite film of the year won Best Picture. Jai Hooooooo!
![[del.icio.us]](http://farm1.static.flickr.com/105/272216537_6bdbc1edb7.jpg?v=0){kind=small}
Tags: Slumdog Millionaire, The Joy Formidable
Posted by Taylor in Artist Spotlight
I absolutly love it!
content rss
February 25th, 2009 at 3:20 am
The Joy Formidable are great. I saw them plat at Latitude festival last year and they were amazing
February 25th, 2009 at 9:15 am
Not sure if this is happening to anyone else, but the links for the songs appear to be just on link to Austere (which sounds awesome, hence my wanting the other song.) Also, the free mini LP is nowhere to be found, so I think they may have taken that down.
Thanks for the music, and keep up the good work.
February 25th, 2009 at 9:22 am
The LP is on their MusicGlue link, though it’s only five of the songs. Still, good deal.
February 25th, 2009 at 9:29 am
I fixed the problem. Thanks for letting me know.
February 25th, 2009 at 10:24 am
I’m glad someone else has picked up on these guys. Hopefully 2009 will be their year!
February 26th, 2009 at 6:23 am
I think this band’s alright — not exactly set the world on fire material, and sometimes it sounds like their songs have come out of the hit machine (or at least gone through on the rinse cycle), but definitely enjoyable.
But the the UK band that has sometimes been tipped as “one to watch” that I’d most like to see blow up is Ipso Facto. They’ve put out a couple of singles that’ve been ace and, going from their demos, if they get round to releasing an album it’ll be well worth listening to.