Label: Hassle Records
Released: 28th September 2018
Rating: ★★★★
It’s been a long road for The Joy Formidable. From North Wales to London, out to Maine to record their second album, back to Mold where it all began to make ‘Hitch’, a strained and personal record characterised by slow-burning tracks. Now vocalist Ritzy Bryan spends her days off hiking the Utah wilderness, taking inspiration from flora, fauna, and the vastness of America’s outback.
Those grand surroundings have yielded ‘AAARTH’, a collage of colour and creation that darts between the different facets of The Joy Formidable’s repertoire, embracing demonic Sabbath riffing on Welsh language opener ‘Y Bluen Eira (The Snowflake)’, yearning anthem ‘The Wrong Side’, which spreads its wings after a stuttering verse to reveal a soaring yet melancholic chorus. ‘Cicada’ begins life as an intimate campfire song, the classical guitars carrying a North African influence, before emerging a strutting rock song. ‘Absence’ finds bassist Rhydian Dafydd anchoring a stately piano arpeggio for the record’s first real breather after a whirlwind of driving rock.
Despite their reputation for ear-splitting crescendos, Bryan very rarely has to raise her voice to express herself. Sombre melancholia is second nature to her these days, but on ‘Go Loving’ and ‘Dance of the Lotus’ she’s able to impart as much threat and intent with a whisper as most singers could with a full-blooded scream.
The album is produced as if the band are sat in the room with you, vocals recorded close to the mic, picking up Ritzy and Rhydian’s every breath. Matt Thomas’ drums jumping out of the speakers, inviting the listener into their world, even as the trio ascend to another plane entirely. They’ve sometimes struggled to pair their expansive sound with a sense of intimacy, but on their fourth album, they’ve found the formula.
After a whirlwind of sound and song, ‘You Can’t Give Me’ is the sunrise after the storm, an insistent one-note guitar line providing a platform for a yearning hook that floats on the morning breeze, Ritzy dipping into her falsetto in a tearjerking confessional. Tracks like these are a reminder that for all their bluster and use of metaphor their songs are rooted in human sadness, joy and healing.
It’s been a turbulent few years for The Joy Formidable, with label issues, internal tensions and coping with the increasingly maddening outside world. ‘AAARTH’ sees them back on solid footing and re-energised to take on the world again.
