“Wait To Pleasure” by No Joy

No Joy
Wait To Pleasure
[Mexican Summer]

Wait To Pleasure’s opening track “E” kicks off with a tracer burst of guitar, ahead of the incoming detonation. The pummeling track builds deliberately to a savage conclusion five minutes later, and with that, Montreal’s No Joy is back. Wait To Pleasure for the most part tempers the grinding guitar, finding them moving further afield in their sonic explorations, (“Blue Neck Riviera”), but defiantly remaining themselves. Upgrading to a real studio has allowed them to burnish their sound into a carnival of noise. One still has to dig deep for many of the vocals, (“Ignored Pets”), but that turns out to be half the fun.

No Joy’s front line of Jasamine White-Gluz and Laura Lloyd is in fine form, and when “Slug Night” whips the froth into high gear, it becomes clear that this is a band

ready to take

on the world. Catch them on tour with either Clinic or Metz. Encapsulating the album is the pensive “Pleasure” into final track “Uhy Yuoi Yoi.” The jaw-dropping closer grabs the moment and amplifies it, an unexpected shimmering pool of beauty that you want to last forever, but the alarm clock of a single snare beat ends the fever dream.