2010, Mexican Summer

VINYL FORMAT. The female-fronted noise poppers are certainly content to mine the depleted fields of shoegaze and twee indie sounds for inspiration, the group creates a maelstrom of melody out of both, with a layered, fuzzy approach that incorporates big, clean riffage, anonymous vocals hiding in the background, and a considerable churn across memorable four-minute pop songs. There's a great deal more structure in their work than is found in many of their contemporaries, and their contemplative song structures work in favor to this approach. It's the perennial box of chocolates filled with razor wire, but even the most fastidious of modern music archaeologists won't see this one coming. We could say a lot of things about the debut album from Montreal/LA ladies No Joy: that it fully delivers on the promise of their Mexican Summer 7", that it builds upon the revitalization of shoegaze pop in recent times with a melodic fervor and angst that many of their contemporaries fail to capitalize on, that their records look and sound gorgeous, that there are moments on Ghost Blonde that match the challenges laid down by My Bloody Valentine and Lush years ago. We could say those things, but then what would the bloggers think? Probably the same. Oh well. We said it. Killer record from a band to be reckoned with. Ten new songs that'll singe your eyelashes off.