Contrast is one of the things that makes Welsh indie rock band The Joy Formidable so interesting. Soft, soothing vocals contrast loud rock instruments. Intricate melodies contrast heavy rhythms. So it’s not surprising that the band’s new release contrasts our bleak pandemic-mired world with a sense of optimism.
Into the Blue, The Joy Formidable’s fifth album and first since 2018’s AAARTH, is an eclectic rock record that celebrates moments of beauty and happiness, of focusing on the positive and learning to appreciate life again. It is an album of bruising guitars and pounding drums that never get too angry or aggressive, tempered by sing-along melodies and Ritzy Bryan’s dreamy voice.
“I’ll be here inside, outside, grateful that we at least felt something,” Bryan sings in the album-opening title track. In the chorus, Bryan’s soft, arpeggiated chords transition to loud anthemic crunch, but her gentle croon cuts across the angry sound of her guitar. “Don’t fear the move out of the past; let time take your hand and guide you,” she sings hopefully.
In the power ballad “Back to Nothing,” Bryan layers a rumbling guitar riff with a clean, glassy guitar tone as she sings of facing the past and learning from it. “There’s no meeting in the middle now,” she sings, before saying assertively, “I won’t go back to nothing.”
“Chimes” is one of the album’s heaviest tracks, Matt Thomas’s booming drums anchoring grimy guitar that violently swings back and forth. “I thought waiting, waiting wasn’t forgetting,” Bryan sings in a rapid-fire rhythm. “I tell myself it’s better than life regretted.”
Though the Joy Formidable formula — layers of distorted guitar, propulsive rhythms, soft vocal melodies — is present throughout Into the Blue, its execution is varied enough to keep things interesting. Bryan’s whispered vocals on “Gotta Feed the Dog,” combined with thumping palm-muted riffs, create an eerie quality. The pulsing tremolo and discordant high-pitched guitars of “Sevier” give it a dark, industrial vibe. Rhydian Dafydd’s bouncing baseline in “Interval” give the rock song a danceable pop quality. The album-closing “Left Too Soon” is the most dynamic song, beginning as a fingerpicked acoustic ballad and slowly building in intensity as pounding drums and growling guitar join the mix, thereafter alternating between quiet beauty and roaring power.
Though a guitar-driven rock album, Into the Blue is as much about the melodies and the storytelling as the heavy moments. It is a multifaceted album of contrasts that melds pop hooks, rock guitars, and beautiful melodies in a way that crosses genres and tones and rewards careful listening.
