Alyssa Menko

May of this year was the first time I ever heard of the band Joy Again, being that they were the opening act for the up-and-coming indie-rock band, Wallows, that I was seeing in concert. Every member of this Philly-based Indie-pop/rock band either held a chaotic, head-bashing energy or a chill, laid-back vibe that complimented each other in the same way that a bad haircut makes an old, beat up baseball cap look retro. Being able to witness them tear it up in their “home-turf” of Philadelphia gave me the visual context I needed to understand and appreciate their newly released album Piano. Piano, listed as an album on Spotify and written about by other reviewers as though it were an EP, contains 7 eclectic songs (the equivalent of a sheer 15 minutes in length). The best way to describe the overall experience of Piano is to compare it to a children’s book of I Spy— there’s an overwhelming amount of things to listen to all at once, but during each time around, you’re able to identify a different aspect of a song that you didn’t notice before. Unlike most albums that are labeled under any form of the “Indie” genre, the unique voice and garage pop style in Piano is intense from the very first note and compels you to keep listening, almost like you’re in a hypnotic technicolour trance. I thoroughly enjoyed this band’s experimentation with eccentric and electronic music styles and their intentional subversions away from traditional lyrical conventions (set refrains, intros, verses, and bridges) which demonstrated that there are ways to make songs sound full and complete without sticking to the “rules.” Even though this band is still too early in the game to have an established Wikipedia page or a solid google search of the band members’ names, let’s just say I expect a lot more “Joy Again” from this group in the future.