BEST NEW INDIE POP: JOYWAVE - CONTENT

Joywave, the five-piece band from Rochester, New York, just dropped their first original track after over three years since their last album, How Do You Feel? Quite a long while between singles. We Are: The Guard wants to find out if it was worth the wait.

JOYWAVE - CONTENT

Picking up where they left off in 2014, Content features all of the electronic and rock goodness that has become their signature sound since their inception, but also presenting a more aggressive, eerie, and unconventional delivery reminiscent of one of my favorite groups, Crystal Castles. I wonder if the guys listened to Empathy and channeled it into the development of this track. A light distorted intro with minimal instrumental and ghastly vocals quickly erupts at the fifty-four-second mark into an all-out aural brawl. The feeling is extremely volcanic and euphoric. I cannot help but get icy chills every time it gets to that moment. The riffing of “The difference” contributes to this hypnotic disposition, with each repeating becoming more and more electronically-manipulated to a point where it is barely discernable.

As with many of the Joywave tracks that I have listened to, the vocals seem to take second billing just due to the sheer brilliance of the instrumentals. This is not an attack of Daniel Armbruster’s vocals, but rather a compliment on the musical compositions. Armbruster just seems to be on cruise control as the track moseys along, as there is no point is getting in the way of the powerful presentation of the instrumentals. It gets better the more you listen to it. Well done, indeed.