How The Joy Formidable Could Be More, Um, Formidable

That title is lame, I'm sorry. I suspect there's a correlation between the quality of a band name and the ability to mine good turns of phrase from it, but that can be a topic for another post.

One common criticism in reviews of The Joy Formidable's first album is that The Big Roar was all too accurate a title. Pitchfork concluded that it too often "sound[ed] like a big blur," while the Guardian's reviewer called it an "unyielding assault." I agree, and I think there's a specific songcraft issue behind it. The band is clearly skilled at writing anthemic riffs and choruses, but they often don't use the kind of melodic and harmonic additions that would add some nuance and clear up the blur.

Take "Magnifying Glass." There's a lot of good stuff here: Strong, instantly memorable initial riff; punchy transition from verse to chorus, thanks largely to a switch to a clearer, sharper vocal recording. I particularly like the way they use the final bridge (starting at 1:36) to add some rhythmic power to the end of the song. After using steady quarter-note beats through the song to that point, dropping to a sparser, syncopated beat serves makes their final return to the core riff sound much more forceful

Still, that final return (at 2:02) feels a little empty, because the rhythmic build isn't melodically well-supported. The band adds a squealing high-pitched guitar to the mix, but it would be stretching to say it even offers a melody- it stays on one note for most of the riff before spiraling into some short notes that don't bear a clear relationship to the beat or (to these only kind-of trained ears) the harmonic structure created by the underlying riff. As a result, the guitar doesn't add anything to the song, much less help with the song-closing power the band is going for. It's just...there.

Other song structures also rely much more heavily on rhythm than melody/harmony for their anthemic force. The last minute or so of "Cradle" does better than "Magnifying Glass" at adding some melodic effect to their build- there's a guitar tone playing a two-note melody that feels organic and sounds rich. But it's not very prominent in the mix. The listener is probably going to feel more impacted by the repeated drum fills, and the ending phrase at 2:35 that utilizes the same approach as "Magnifying Glass"- a final return to the riff, accompanied by forceful quarter-note pounding by the drums.

The aggregate effect of this tendency over a 50-minute album is indeed an assaultive blur- a lot of rhythmic force, not offset by much melodic nuance. It's a good album, but it's a lot to take.

That said, the first single from their new album, out shortly, suggests some improvement. The use of the piano immediately sets a different, less pummeling tone. And there's more melodic flavor to the build at the end of the song (starting shortly before 3:00). The guitar melody is higher in the mix than in either of the songs above, and it's sufficiently well-integrated, melodically and harmonically- especially when it speeds up after 3:15- to carry much of the anthemic weight of the song. Here's hoping the rest of the album follows suit.