ALBUM: No Joy 'More Faithful'

Finally, the clocks are chiming, the red carpets are rolling and dawn has finally broken: the release of the follow-up record to the mesmerising, Wait To Pleasure, by No Joy, is almost upon us. Harbouring intense darkness, frequent rip-roaring bursts of adrenaline and tainted atmospheres of warped excitement, the startling world of More Faithful shouldn’t be entered without extreme caution, as this four-piece are about to potentially alter mindsets, forever.

The thirteen-track LP – recorded between Brooklyn and Costa Rica – marks the band’s third release on Mexican Summer. More Faithful is a carnival of mysteriously electrifying sounds, celebrating the heights that No Joy – aka Jasmine White-Gluz, Laura Lloyd, Garland Hastings and Michael Farsky – have risen to.

Holding controversial juxtaposition at its heart, More Faithful cocktails pure beauty – taking the form of an alternative shoegaze sound (‘Everything New’, ‘Moon In My Mouth’, ‘Bolas’) – with chaotic, guttural rock (‘Corpo Deamon’, ‘Chalk Snake’, ‘Remember Nothing’). Taking an almighty risk with the blending of these two contrasting genres has been made to sound effortless by No Joy; it’s as if this pairing has been waiting in the wings all this time, yearning to be picked up and meshed together.

Letting their hair down, two of the more experimental tracks which aid the power-laced record to reach a new pinnacle of appeal are ‘Rude Films’ and ‘Hollywood Teeth’. Alongside More Faithful‘s penultimate track, ‘I am an Eye Machine’, the record’s volume and overall likeability factor intensely increases, making it almost physically impossible to dislike the punchy, raucous sounds of No Joy.

A spectacular record chock-filled with death-defying risks, celebratory, alterative takes on opposing genres and moreish skill, pure talent and overall extremely hard-work ebbing throughout, No Joy’s More Faithful is an album to seriously mark the band’s place on the map. Permanent markers at the ready.

More Faithful is available from June 8 in the UK (June 9 US).

Ella Scott
@ell44h