Joy Again's newest single 'Country Song' pays homage to its namesake
Joy Again, Philadelphia-based indie-pop quintet led by oddball duo Arthur Shea and Sachi DiSerafino, have been known to include elements of country music in their songs. Their latest track brings a new level of mid-western folk revival. Joy Again have left no room for debate on...
Joy Again, Philadelphia-based indie-pop quintet led by oddball duo Arthur Shea and Sachi DiSerafino, have been known to include elements of country music in their songs. Their latest track brings a new level of mid-western folk revival.
Joy Again have left no room for debate on the labeling of their newest single—but it would be unfair to stop there. ‘Country Song’ is just that: a dream-pop tune infused with elements of ragtime and cowboy folk, a unique style of amalgamation that Joy Again have begun to master conceiving and producing.
What begins as an unassuming indie-pop track splashed with jaunty slide guitar careens off the road in a sharp right turn once Shea’s vocals pass through an old-timey filter; it’s at this point that the track ditches any semblance of pop, pulling on cowboy boots and taking off down a beaten dirt path. Supported by a bucolic bass line and rat-a-tat drum fills, the original instrumental is reimagined into a 40’s country anthem. Joy Again haven’t been seized by the likes of what we understand as modern country music—rather, “Country Song” glitches in electronic buffers at (the most) random times and features haunted-computer sound effects.
In the accompanying visual co-directed by Richard Philip Smith and Noah Burke, Shea meanders along western Pennsylvanian turnpikes and, logically, studies a model train exhibit for the better part of the video. It’s clear that country music culture—for whatever reason—has begun to become synonymous with pop culture (see “Old Town Road,” Be the Cowboy, Here Comes the Cowboy, etc.). That doesn’t stop at top-chart radio; behold, spurs and chaps have seeped their way into the fringes of indie rock.
Check out the video below and stay tuned for Joy Again’s EP Piano to be released on August 7th via Honeycomb.