Joywave
Cleanse

The pandemic has been pretty shitty for a lot of people. Add in the effect it has had on the music and entertainment industry, and you’ll begin to understand just how difficult it was to try and remain creative. Or, in the case of Joywave, you spend a full 18 months prepping for your sprawling and well-conceived third album called Possession, and it becomes almost DOA as the world shut down around the band and others. The band described these feelings on a recent Facebook post by saying, “It was crushing to watch everything we had worked so hard to roll out in just the right way obliterated in an instant.But creatively, the timing couldn’t have been better. Something more positive began to emerge. With our dense touring schedule shelved, I was able to reflect on past travels and appreciate them in a new way. But reminders of our fragile mortality were everywhere, punctuated by the ongoing pandemic and civil unrest. The music began to encompass all of this. It became the words, encouragement, and occasional cautions that I would want to share with you if this was the last time we spoke. And with all this time spent looking inward came the realization that there were still a few chips I was carrying on my shoulder that I needed to let go of. Maybe you have those too.One of my first jobs ever was at a car wash. I thought of the band, after years spent on the road taking a breather. Going through that wash process. Watching all the dirt and mud stripped away. Coming out the other side refreshed and rejuvenated. Still having experienced everything from before, but no longer wearing the scars.” The era of Cleanse has arrived for Joywave, and the timing appears to finally be in their favor.

Cleanse opens with the past very much at the forefront of the band’s lens as lead vocalist Daniel Armbruster explains, “No help, no help / The world’s gone crazy / It’s on something lately / No help, no help / Just pray for the reboot / And when the call goes out again / I hope they give me that part / Big names are in / We’ll take it back to the start,” on “Pray For the Reboot.” The song has everything we’ve come to expect from the indie rock band that blends electronic elements with solid guitar hooks.

”Buy American” follows the well-organized opening track with an 80’s-synth stylized approach over a great beat. Joywave recaptures a lot of the magic they had on their debut record with an improved approach to their songwriting and thoughtful lyrics. The chorus of, “Don’t care, buy American / Think less if it hurts more, baby / Live, laugh like I always say / When it breaks you get the whole thing replaced,” provides some social commentary on how many of us are just trudging through this difficult period of time. Other early songs like the standout lead single, “Every Window is a Mirror” live up to the legacy that the band has crafted over their first three albums, and makes for another enjoyable listening experience.

The steady synths of “Cyn City 2000” break up some of the similar-sounding vibes of the first three songs, and provide some additional commentary on the world around us. The second verse of, “Step outside of the pre-drawn lines I’ve assembled /
Help me find a balance in the malice / I don’t wanna be cynical / Wasting time, everybody’s in your mind / Yeah you coulda done it first, but the market wasn’t right,” is well thought out and brings more clarity to the dual-meaning of Cleanse and the metaphor of starting over.

Some of the middle section of the album on songs like “After Coffee” provide a more reflective tone on the world around us, rather than bouncing back to (hopefully) better days ahead. A similar vibe comes through the speakers on “We Are All We Need,” as Armbruster explains his outlook singing, “I was a boy who kept a list of everybody who wouldn’t let me in / Sense of humor now about it but there’s jadedness where love should have been / Drove around town ’til the last stone thrown was hollow / Wait a couple years and now all I’ve got left is sorrow.” “Goodbye Tommy” rounds out this brief “trilogy” of mid-tempo songs that set the table nicely for the more aggressive-tinged tracks that follow.

Things reach a creative peak on “The Inversion,” a blast of energy from the Rochester, New York-band that drive around a pulsating bass line and a great guitar groove. The chorus doesn’t exactly provide the rosiest of outlooks as they explain, “Two tabs, pay your ransom / Your conversion’s here, there’s a new anthem / As you fall inside, but it looks just like your home / Two tabs, that’s some bad shit / Yeah your ‘Breathe’ tattoo isn’t helping one bit / As you fall inside and the vapor turns to stone.” It makes for another great song in the repertoire of a band regaining their creative footing.

Things take a turn towards the experimental and strange on “Why Would You Want to Be Young Again?” a song that builds around a weird loop, and reflects on the difficult choice of looking back on our past while investigating what we may have done differently had we got the chance to improve upon it. It’s a pretty cool topic of choice to write about, and blends well into the album closer of the excellently-titled, “Have You Ever Lit a Year on Fire?” Armbruster does a great job of explaining the pain and anguish of watching his work on Possession burst into flames as the world shut down any hopes of properly promoting that record with a headlining tour. All things considered, Joywave appear to have re-gained a lot of that early momentum found on their earlier material, and appear poised to brings these songs to life on their current Spring headlining stint.