Review: No Joy- Wait to Pleasure
So apparently there’s some kind of problem with being
labeled a shoegaze band.
Well, maybe there’s no problem if that’s what you set out to
do in the first place. But there’s been a recent crop of young bands that have
that incorporated that shoegaze sound into their music—and at times in music
press, it comes off like a scarlet letter of some kind.
No Joy is one of those bands. By the name alone, I should
love this band, because I don’t really like joy, or joyful things. Their excellent,
yet under the radar 2010 debut LP, Ghost
Blonde, was a mix of shoegaze aesthetics and a bratty Sonic Youth-esq post
punk attitude.
And I do like this band. They have a youthful exuberance
that shows through, even if their musical style isn’t exactly “fun”
sounding. On their second LP, Wait to Pleasure, the band vastly
expands on the excellent, yet one-dimensional sound they started with.
There’s a lot on Wait
to Pleasure that is indebted to that shoegazing sound—specifically on the
single “Lunar Phobia.” The rhythmic track bounces along with wavy and swirling
guitars, vocal samples built into dope beats that back the whole thing—it’s all
very reminiscent of My Bloody Valentine’s “Soon,” the closing track from Loveless. And I’m not saying that it’s a
bad thing here, or derivative, but “Lunar Phobia” is a song where No Joy can’t
hide their influences.
The same goes for the album’s final track, “Uhy Yuoi Yoi,”
which contains elements similar to the dreamier side of shoegaze—like Slowdive.
The straightforward rock sound from Ghost Blonde is still very prevalent on the new album—the other
single, “Hare Tarot Lies” is powered by a snarling, fuzzed out guitar. This
sound has just grown much larger, and sounds better organized this time
out—“Lizard Kids” is a prime example. You could see this song having rough
edges if it had been on their debut, but by taking advantage of a proper
recording studio environment, the rough edges are polished enough that it’s
still a tad abrasive, but is sonically much clearer.
In reading some press for this album, it says that the band
recorded an entire record with Sune Rose Wagner of the band The Ravonettes, but
then scrapped the entire thing because it was “too weird.” I guess I’m curious
to find out what No Joy would consider to be “too weird.” Wait to Pleasure is certainly not weird, but it’s also an acquired
taste. It’s much more manageable in comparison to their debut, and it is more
palatable than some of their peers—like Ringo Deathstarr, as far as a casual listen
goes.
Wait to Pleasure runs
through many stylistic shifts—noisy, beat-oriented, atmospheric, brash,
dreamy—sometimes it’s all of these at the same time. It’s also an album that
shows a band with huge potential, and a band that’s not afraid to continue to
grow into their sound.