Joy Kills Sorrow’s debut album ‘Darkness Sure Becomes This City’ is a strong contemporary American folk album from a young group of musicians, but over the past couple of years they’ve grown, matured and developed as a band. The results of this are easy to see on ‘This Unknown Science’, and this new album is a standout in modern American roots music.
First and foremost, this is an acoustic roots album performed by a tight group of stellar musicians, but it’s obvious the 5 members of the band have grown up listening to a huge range of music as the influences of pop, indie-rock and jazz are easy to see in places, and they seamlessly integrate into the natural and organic sound presented by Joy Kills Sorrow.
The songs are all presented by Emma Beaton’s distinct vocals – smooth and unforced, she glides in and around the musical backing in a unique way giving the band their unique sound.
If the vocals mark the band out as different, then the songwriting is also worthy of note, bass player Bridget Kearney has a great turn of phrase, and an eye for the unusual situation – these are songs that really stand out from the crowd with some unique settings and ideas.
Add the combined musical talents of Jacob Joliff (mandolin), Matthew Acara (guitar) and Wesley Corbett (banjo) into the mix and you have one of the finest group of young traditional musicians around.
There are moments over the 11 songs where the interplay between all 5 of the band is truly breathtaking, notably the infectious ‘One More Night’ that showcases the band at their very best, intricate playing and interchange showcasing great vocals and lyrics.
Joy Kills Sorrow are a band with real attraction – the traditional skills of Crooked Still, but they approach the music from a slightly different angle and the more modern influences give them a genuine cross-over appeal.
Track listing
1 Reservations
2 Jason
3 Wouldn't Have Noticed
4 Surprise
5 New Man
6 The Ice is Starting to Melt
7 Somewhere over the Atlantic
8 Eli
9 One More Night
10 When I Grow Up
11 Such Sweet Alarms
review 19 July 2011
