I live and worship at the altar of Too Much Joy. My email address is a literal TMJ reference. But holy hell, I can\u2019t believe we have a new TMJ album in 2021. This one comes twenty-five years after the release of their last full-length, \u2026Finally<\/i>. The original foursome, including rhythm guitarist\/producer William Wittman, wound up creating new music while locked down in 2020 quarantine. Jesus, this is epic!<\/p>\n
Opening track \u201cBlinding Light Of Love\u201d sounds like an extremely powerful band with great musicianship. You would never know this album was made by five guys who were never in the same room at once. This takes me back to 1992 and my favorite TMJ album, Mutiny<\/i>. I can\u2019t help but feel like I\u2019ve been sent back in time to the \u201890s when I hear \u201cCamper Of The Year,\u201d which is a quick and really punchy song.<\/p>\n
Frontman Tim Quirk still sounds as smarmy and snarky as in the band\u2019s heyday and the others haven\u2019t changed much either. Neither have their influences. \u201cHair Shirt\u201d coyly mimics \u201cTrain In Vain\u201d by one of their favorites, The Clash. I can\u2019t believe how much fun they\u2019re having and how well it translates to the listener. Even the quasi-mellower tracks like \u201cMore Of The Stuff I Like\u201d sound amazing and really leaves the listener wondering why this band weren\u2019t bigger.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s nice to hear the band do some relatively new things, like the keyboards on \u201cNot Being You\u201d and female backing vocals, courtesy of Joan Osborne on \u201cUncle Watson Wants To Think.\u201d \u201cOliver Plunkett\u2019s Head\u201d is one of their more lyrically complex tracks but it still manages to work. The band reverts to their past glory with \u201cSnow Day,\u201d which is one of my faves on the record. <\/p>\n
This is one of their most cohesive and solid records and is one of the most surprising things I\u2019ve heard in 2021. Who knew that a band that I discovered in college in the mid 2000s that hasn\u2019t done more than a few singles and compilations in twenty years could make one of the most exciting discs of the year. Thanks Covid for allowing this to become a reality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":34285,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[9691],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-46120","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-too-much-joy","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/91"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46120\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46120"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}