Today’s Music: ‘The Big Roar’
Shandon Bilbrey, Journalist
February 16, 2012
Filed under Arts & Entertainment, Music
The Joy Formidable
Welsh indie rock artist, The Joy Formidable caught critical attention with the release of their long anticipated debut album, “The Big Roar.”
“The Big Roar” debuted at 31 on the UK Albums Chart and 8 on the Billboard Heatseekers Chart. Along with the album placing high in the US and UK, the album released four singles, “Austere”, “Whirring”, “Cradle”, and “A Heavy Abacus”. Out of the twelve songs on the album, my favorite song is “Whirring” due to its catchy chorus and bass line. Coming up in second is “Austere” on account of lead singer, Ritzy Bryan’s light screams introducing the song to a powerful dream pop song.
BBC Music and NME, both popular music publications, gave “The Big Roar”, positive reviews, such as BBC Music stating the album as, “a fantastic debut.” On the other hand, music publications Pitchfork Media denounced the album in writing, “There’s no denying the Joy Formidable’s passion, vigor, and pop smarts; it would just be easier to appreciate those qualities if ‘The Big Roar’ didn’t so often sound like a big blur.”
The Joy Formidable has released a tour to support their debut album and will be teaming up with A Place To Bury Strangers and Exitmusic on their tour throughout the US and Canada. Most recently the have been released as a main act in the music festival, Sasquatch.
In my opinion, “The Big Roar”, represents The Joy Formidable’s creativity and talent as musicians. Also, it displays a huge amount of potential for growth in becoming a mature band and owning their own style. Although “The Big Roar” was generally a long anticipated album, it was well worth the wait.
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