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Album Review: No Joy – Drool Sucker EP

You’d have to be bleaker than a black hole to live up to a name as cataclysmically futile as No Joy.

Yet while the Montreal quartet never reach such heights (or depths), there is a crushing, end-of-the-world dreariness about their post-rock/shoegaze noise. That’s not to say ‘Drool Sucker’ is joyless; in fact the band’s press release alludes to them playing “shimmery infectious dream pop”, which, when the rolling drums and doom-laden introduction to ‘A Thorn in Garland’s Side’ kicks in, makes such claims sound like the punchline to a bad joke. Instead, ‘Drool Sucker’ is the sound of a band not giving a fuck about convention, toying with expectations and delivering an EP so raw and honest it simply demands your attention.

Drool Sucker by No Joy

Only three songs long and the first EP in a series, for all the dismal imagery alluded to above ‘Drool Sucker’ is remarkably accessible, offering a short, sharp stab of progressive, engaging and innovative shoegaze. That said, ‘Drool Sucker’ is not after easy wins – and you wouldn’t call your band No Joy if you were offering everything up on a plate. Instead, there’s an artistry to ‘XO (Adam’s Getting Married)’ and ‘Theme Song’ that elevates proceedings to Sonic Youth levels of brooding alt-rock dissonance.

Cerebral and melodious, imaginative and powerful, there’s some deft hands and smart minds behind the apocalyptic sounds of No Joy. No-one said The Rapture would be beautiful, but No Joy have conjured up a fitting soundtrack to the End of Days.

4/5

’Drool Sucker’ EP by No Joy is released on 15th July on Topshelf Records.

No Joy links: Facebook|Bandcamp|Twitter

Words by Rob Mair (@BobNightMair)

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