Ahead of their new album The Land Of Holy Joy, which is released in September, Band of Holy Joy unveils new single Isn’t That Just the Life to seriously whet the appetite for their impending full-length. The song is a fascinating weave of familiar and fresh textures soaked in vocal and lyrical drama, an infectious adventure of sound and energy which needs little time to stir up ears and imagination.
2014 saw the release of the band’s acclaimed Easy Listening album and it’s highly successful single When a Gift is a Curse, both even after three decades of creating persistently enthralling musical and lyrical explorations, saw Band of Holy Joy blossoming new depths of invention and, for want of a better term, creative theatre in their sound. Subsequent single A Place Called Home, also upon The Land Of Holy Joy exposed another fresh and magnetic lining to the band’s resourcefulness, but it has to be said that Isn’t That Just the Life simply outshines them all.
From its first breath, the song bounds in on a lively stroll, bass tempting and guitar lures instantly engaging with hard to escape individual hooks. The ever distinctive tones of Johny Brown soon bring their unpolished but gripping croon and lyrical drama into the mix, rhythms gently shaping the increasingly riveting growth of the song. Once and quickly into its shadowed draped warm and almost swaggering canter, a hue of The Smiths oozes through the song’s veins to only add thrilling colour to a song which in some ways plays like the alternative to This Charming Man from the female perspective.
With keys wonderfully shimmering like light on the sea of sound and festive bursts of brass within the constantly alluring portrait of sound and vocal incitement irresistible, Isn’t That Just the Life simply owns ear, thoughts, and emotions with sublime ease and craft. As suggested earlier, for personal tastes the single eclipses everything from the band over the past year or so, even longer to be honest as great as anything was, ensuring The Land Of Holy Joy will be an eagerly approached proposition along the way.
Isn’t That Just the Life is available from Stereogram Recordings on August 10th.
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12/08/2015
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