The Joy Formidable - The Big Roar
I first got into The Joy Formidable on the basis of "I Don't Want to See You Like This", which I repeatedly heard on the radio and mistook for a new single by The Hot Puppies. This was partly due to the strength of its brash and snappy rock but mostly because Ritzy Bryan's voice and accent sounds so similar to Becky Newman's (which therefore ought to mean, as pointed out about Becky by Ian Mathers, that she sounds like a Welsh Gwen Stefani. Hmm, not exactly).
That talent for instant power-pop thrills is carried on through the album but with few exceptions like that and fellow single "Cradle" (whose 'my vicious tongue cradles just one' chorus lyric is a good short cut to their aesthetic), the songs are drawn out into long jams and buried in shimmering, pummelling noise. The band they most remind me of across the album is actually Ash, but much artier and a bit less bubblegum - there's something about the way that they lean towards punk and metal in sound and use its loudness and impact while being pop through and through which is very similar.
Even their biggest single, "Whirring", sees its candied hooks and chorus put through a layer of fuzz and shifts after the song into four minutes of ear-splitting, exhilaratingly harsh instrumental. It's never quite clear whether they are a noise band who can't help but write immediate pop melodies or vice versa, but either way it works.
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