Review of Album by Little Joy
Released on Rough Trade Records 2008
Ex-Strokes drummer Fabrizio Moretti has got it all- hugely successful, a great name, great hair and a fairly substantial beard, yet seemingly discontent with this he has to go and put his name to one of the most enjoyable albums so far this year.
Rough Trade Records
Released on Rough Trade Records, Little Joy superbly marries the power-pop of the Strokes with bossa-nova ballads of the sixties, with even a touch of the Velvet Underground.
The album finds Moretti teaming up with Rodrigo Amarante from the Brazilian group Los Hermanos and the gorgeous vocal talents of the unbelievably named Binki Shapiro. There is, understandably, a large focus on this record because of Moretti’s involvement, but in truth Amarante and Shapiro more than carry their weight with this record.
The music on the album has a beautifully indulgent quality about it, which is not surprising given that the ideas behind it were conceived by afternoons spent mooching around at a local bar (called Little Joy), mixing cocktails and strumming on ukulele’s.
Little Joy
You can’t help but be drawn on by this indulgence and the good time sounds of this record. The pure summer haze which drifts throughout this record threatens to infect even the dourest of souls, and it’s a perfect release to pull you through the winter.
First single “The Next Time Around” begins by sounding reminiscent of Devendra Banhart’s most recent material (not surprising as Noah Georgeson produced the album) before setting down into a bouncing calypso skank.
The sunshine pop of “No One’s Better Sake”, with its looping bass line and organ stabs is redolent of halcyon days and sun soaked tropical coastlines. Similarly “With Strangers” sways lazily and drunkenly, being reminiscent of something you might hear late at night in a seedy smoke filled Portuguese bar.
Don't Watch Me Dancing
However “Don’t Watch Me Dancing” is the real standout here. The delicately plucked guitar and the ukulele strums are graced by Shapiro’s rich vocals, and you can’t help but being transfixed by her sad and world weary delivery.
The Brazilian inflected “Evaporar” brings the album to a whispered close, with a nod towards Cataeno Veloso and Joao Gilberto. Just solitary guitar and vocals, its all minors and major 7th’s and is imbued with the same wistful intimacy which makes Brazilian music, and indeed this album as a whole, so affecting. There’s a sweet romanticism about the music of Little Joy. Every track has a feel of rose-tinted view of life, and while this album may not change the world it might just make you smile.
Little Joy
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