“More Faithful” by No Joy

No Joy
More Faithful
[Mexican Summer]

When you listen to Montreal’s No Joy, there is an innate visceral response that happens almost instantly. It’s a reaction that springs up from deep inside and latches onto an obscure feeling that’s difficult to pinpoint – an unnamed aesthetic that is No Joy.

As soon as the clash of guitars and drums kick off More Faithful album opener “Remember Nothing” against Jasamine White-Gluz and Laura Lloyd’s languid vocals, that feeling smacks you right in the face. More Faithful pushes and pulls between No Joy’s fever-paced swarm of beautiful noise like that of “Corpo Daemon,” pauses to stretch its electronica legs on “Burial in Twos,” and has its quiet moments during “Bolas” and “Moon in my Mouth.”

The feelings from the heart override a lot of the lyrical aspects on More Faithful. No Joy has never been a vocals-forward band; if you asked five different people what White-Gluz was singing about you’d likely get five different answers. However, More Faithful feels more intimate than previous albums simply because the vocals are more audible, and with that intimacy comes a distinctive feeling that No Joy is more confident in their skin than ever before.