Bookended by two of their most expansive tracks, the third album from the Brooklyn trio sees them stretching the boundaries of their lo-fi Spectorist template. Share The Joy is an album that gathers momentum; opener \u2018The Other Girls\u2019 features an introspective lyric set against an epic backing that evokes a homespun atmosphere in keeping with the knowing primitivism of the disc\u2019s cover. The track rolls along for around six minutes, as their signature lush harmonies meander around a fragile, mildly discordant melody.<\/p>\n
Lyrically, the theme of bittersweet longing permeates the album; the post-folk \u2018I Heard You Say\u2019 striking a heart-rending melancholic tone, while the insistently catchy \u2018Dance (If You Wanna) is the disc\u2019s \u2018moving on\u2019 song. At their best, the Vivian Girls have the ability to create songs of remarkable delicacy and beauty \u2013 they hit high gear with the up-tempo \u2018Lake House\u2019 and lock in with \u2018Trying To Pretend\u2019 \u2013 an ethereal siren song that builds, grows wings, and soars. Share The Joy reaches its summit with \u2018Sixteen Ways\u2019, whereupon the Vivs add attitude to the mix as cynical lyrics are juxtaposed against sonic sweetness while vapour trails of vocal harmony intertwine and dissipate into the mesmeric miasma.
\nThe trio also demonstrate their harder edge with \u2018Vanishing of Time\u2019, adding evocative badlands guitar to their trademark sound. There\u2019s also humour here; the enchanting and lovelorn \u2018Take It As It Comes\u2019 features some arch girl-group dialogue, and \u2018Death\u2019 emerges from banks of organ vibrato as a darkly comic deathsong pastiche.<\/p>\n
Closing track \u2018Light In Your Eyes\u2019 finds the group again scaling the bucolic peaks depicted on the sleeve; the song slowly gathers momentum before bursting into vibrant life as restrained distortion crackles around the edge of melody. This is the trio at their most hypnotic, with the icing on the cake being a lead vocal of extraordinary resonance.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s nothing radical here for anyone who enjoyed the previous two Vivian Girls album, simply a measured methodical development that is wholly indicative of a group who are developing into something very special indeed. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bookended by two of their most expansive tracks, the third album from the Brooklyn trio sees them stretching the boundaries of their lo-fi Spectorist template. Share The Joy is an album that gathers momentum; opener \u2018The Other Girls\u2019 features an introspective lyric set against an epic backing that evokes a homespun atmosphere in keeping with the knowing primitivism of the disc\u2019s cover. The track rolls along for around six minutes, as their signature lush harmonies meander around a fragile, mildly discordant melody.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1785,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[88],"tags":[151,121,240],"series":[],"class_list":["post-1783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-indie","tag-dick-porter","tag-eyeplug","tag-vivian-girls"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1783"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=1783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}