No Joy - Motherhood

I've been a fan of No Joy since their first LP "Ghost Blonde" and I truly think "Wait to Pleasure" is the best shoegaze album of the last decade, due to the fact its focused on songs first, sounds second, which lets face it, it's often the reverse with most modern examples of the genre. Their last full length(obviously skipping the various eps/collaborations) came out in 2015, and I'll be honest, i wasn't into that album for whatever reason, even though "Everything New" is top tier No Joy jam. I think at the time I was burnt on shoegaze, or just didn't hit me at the right moment, but I'm planning on revisiting soon. So, 5 years later we are greeted with "Motherhood", maybe their best LP too date. This record is one of the weirdest, creative, unselfconscious and psychedelic thing I've heard in a quite sometime. It sounds like it should be coming out on RVNG Intl, its so experimental. So, I guess getting to the reference points I'm hearing, which is not to diminish it as its own work, is a crazy mix of Deftones, NIN, Enya, Garbage, Curve and 90s dance music like Deee-Lite with all the layering of wacky samples and sounds(baby coos!). My favourite No Joy songs(Lunar Phobia/Everything New) are normally the ones that are the dancey side of shoegaze like obvi examples being MBVs "Soon" or Medicine's "Slut" and we basically get an album full of killer dance songs! Its kinda what I've wanted from No Joy all along cuz Jasamine has a keen ear for weird rhythmic pulses, looped vocals that make me wanna spin around in circles alone in my apartment/room for years. Its PERFECT music for driving/solo walks. When "real" drums enter the mix, its like they got Abe Cunningham but told him to under play as much as possible. I wouldn't call this "shoegaze" in the traditional sense but to me it continues what the genre should be, pushing guitar music into more experimental directions. The songs often start and end in completely unexpected places, its a fairly unpredictable record.....which isn't something that can be said of most indie music right now. It also makes bold choices, that at first yr like 🤔, but by the end yr fully on board because the choice works! "Fish" is my personal favorite song, it somehow blends an Enya and NIN in perfect disharmony, and just throws you for a loop, I was grinning with glee when those guitars come in. My only real "issue" with the LP is the second track, which isn't bad or anything, I just dont connect with it for whatever reason, mostly do to the screaming/black metal kinda vibe it puts forth. Just personal taste, not for lack of poor execution. I want to reiterate, i know ive put a lot of reference points in this essay, but this LP is pretty singular, most bands arent this creative/exploding with ideas over the course of their whole discography and Jasamine does it in one LP. This definitely has skyrocketed to one of my favorites of the year. Enjoy

https://nojoy.bandcamp.com/album/motherhood