#abicus

The Joy Formidable - A Heavy Abacus, from their debut album The Big Roar, an album that should hold no debate as whether to buy it.

So the other day I found myself aimlessly browsing the 'Rock and Pop' aisle in a certain record store and in my hand I was flipping 'The Big Roar' over and over as if the next time it turned over the price tag would simply dissolve. Being a student, impoverished by the likes of food and laundry the opportunity to purchase a CD rarely comes around and so as I was standing there, I needed a sign showing me that eating nothing but pasta and bread for the next eight days would be justified, and it came in the form of 'A Heavy Abacus' that began blaring out across the stores speakers. And so it was that I wondered over to the desk and bought it. £10 well spent. 

The Joy Formidable are one of those bands that you hear a few years prior to their debut album but, amongst the weekly influx of new music they get somewhat crowded out of your iTunes playlist due to slow growth. They formed in 2007, finding early success being featured on Skins as well as in the Guardian and the Times and playing Reading and Leeds introducing stage in 2008. 

The album wreaks of the studio, the songs so polished and powerful. The debut single, a quirky song called austere, screams Huw Stephens in New Music We Trust radio play whilst Whirring refers to a time in the bands career that seems far more mature, a song instantly resembles influences such as Arcade Fire. This being a pattern that the album follows; a journey through the bands maturity and musical experience with songs like Cradle and Buoy. Catch them live if you can.

The Big Roar - 7.9/10

The Big Roar was released on January 24th [2011]. You can buy it here.