“We Don’t Need to Whisper” was wildly atmospheric and expansive in its sound.  In that vein, I have uncovered another jewel that is very ‘proggy’ and the Cure-like in its exorcise of its musical chops.

The Joy Formidable is a Welsh band that has found a re-creation of the underground alt rock meets progressive new wave stylings.  Formed in 2011, the band has just released its third studio album “Hitch.”  Now I haven’t heard of these guys before.  I just stumbled onto them one evening while I was listening to the alternative digital music channel.  Thanks to the Shazam app, I was able to ‘Shazam’ the song and download the album.  Music at my fingertips.  Needless to say, I’m impressed with “Hitch.”  I made the mistake of reading other’s reviews of “Hitch” prior to composing my own conclusions.  But I don’t feel like that has compromised my view.  Most of the reviews were consistent in their conclusions; The Joy Formidable is amazingly talented but came to market at the wrong time when listeners didn’t have the appetite for ‘proggy’ guitar-infused underground rock.  And second, The Joy Formidable’s first two albums were much more solid and unique.  “Hitch” is a retread of the original works.

Fortunately for me, I haven’t heard any of their earlier work so I didn’t relate to these conclusions.  “Hitch” and The Joy Formidable were an exciting new sound for me to hear exactly when I needed to hear it.  Once again, music marks the mileposts and waypoints in our lives.  Now I have very little to base my recommendations on here as I’ve not heard their first two studio releases.  I can only go on this album, which as I mentioned above has been deemed as the same old stuff.  I don’t know the old stuff.

What I do know is this stuff and I like it.  This isn’t pump up the party anthem rock.  It’s also not get your work out on music.  I wouldn’t recommend listening if you are trying to get pumped for anything.  It’s moody and ethereal.  This is pop your headphones on sit in a darkly lit room with a bottle wine breakup music.  Okay, I’m generalizing a bit but it is music you will find solace in because the lyrics are very relatable.

Maybe their sound is a little bit schizophrenic but that’s what is great about true musicianship.  It’s not type-cast.  It’s creative and morphs to meet the mood.  At times it’s gritty and loud with guitar-laden riffs that are arena-rock and smoke machine worthy.  Other times, it’s experimental but just melodic enough to be easy to listen to without saying “What the hell is this?”  And then on the next song it will be soft and acoustic.  And like a homeless meth head hearing voices in his head, the album switches insanely to an ethereal but bluesy song on the next selection.  One would think that this broad cross section of song types would not mesh.  But it does.  From start to finish as if it were telling a story, the album doesn’t lag back on the desire to communicate.  But to be fair, every song is a little long at 5 to 6 minutes.

Lyrics are emotive, clearly representing some relationship between the lead singer, Ritzy Bryan and bassist, Rhydian Dafydd.  While the lyrics don’t explore anything more than loneliness and breakups, they’re personal experiences we all can relate to.  But it’s the massive efforts of the music and its arrangement that I feel take these typical personal experiences over the top and make this a really good album.

I’ve picked two songs which I think capture the vastness of the album.  The first is “The Last Thing on My Mind.”  This is most likely the song that you will hear on the radio.  It was the song that caught my ear while on the digital music channel.  It’s the most driven and heavy yet catchy guitar riff song on the album.  Ritzy’s singing just floats perfectly over the driving music.  And I can’t tell if this song is about a breakup, a booty call, or masturbation (sorry sensitive readers).

Next is “Underneath the Petal.”  This is an acoustic, ever-increasing crescendo of a song.  It was hard to pick this over “Don’t Let Me Know” which is equally impressive.  I like my lyrics challenging and almost allegorical.  “Don’t Let Me Know” was too long and obvious in its writing.  But “Underneath the Petal” is epic in its writing both lyrically and musically.  Clearly about a breakup and clearly in pain, this song feels like a musical magic carpet ride to a dark place in our hearts.  We’ve been where this song goes.

To conclude, The Joy Formidable was a perfect experience at the time I found it.  And “Hitch” is a record to listen to when you’re in a mood.  It swirls with emotion in the lyrics and atmospheric riffs and strings.  Now I wouldn’t take a heavy dose of it and listen over and over again like you can with more disposable pop-driven music.  “Hitch” may not be their best work to date according to those in the music-know.  But I;m satisfied with the listening experience provide by this album.  But we like what we like despite what a critic may think, say or write.  After all, I wouldn’t expect you to come to the same conclusions as I do about The Joy Formidable.  I can only hope that we can share our inspirations with each other to learn more about each other and grow.  That’s the idealist in me.

A gentleman's name should appear in the newspaper only three times: When he's born, when he marries, and when he dies.  And above all, we are gentlemen first.

The words above, I take ever so seriously.  It is the one thing in my life that I’m very proud of, my steadfast respect of others.  Always be a gentleman.  I don’t know if my parents taught me this or if it’s something you are innately born with.  In either event, I treasure this quality I ‘m blessed to possess and work hard to instill such ideals in my own two sons.  Never, do I want them to disrespect someone.  Especially at a horrific and unfathomable level like sexual assault.

I’m tired of reading the name Brock Turner in the media.  He’s not a gentleman.  He’s not a man.  He’s not even human.  Hell, I challenge you to tell me he’s even an animal; my money is on slime.
 

I’m so sickened by the complete and utter breakdown of our legal system, the perceived bias of university alums and undergrads and the larger unspeakable bias of privilege.  I’m not sick from hearing about it; I’m sickened that it happened.  And continues to happen.  People continue to take advantage of others.

6 months for 3 felonies.  For ruining a life.  But it was the alcohol that made me do it and I want to speak to kids on how binge drinking leads to ‘unfortunate results.’  Are you fucking kidding me?  It was the drinking?  Have some fucking account ability for God’s sake you useless sack of shit.  Enough with the profane tirade as it accomplishes nothing more than making me exercise my right to say what I want.

I don’t want this entry to be about Brock Turner putting his name in media ether again or my vehement disgust for our legal system.  It’s not the legal system.  The jurors found him unanimously guilty of these felonies.  Our system works.  What doesn’t work is the subjectivity of a Stanford alumnus who didn’t want to ‘ruin’ this kid’s future.  His sentencing is comical.  Even more, is the lack of responsibility and remorse of this guy.  Punishment should suit the crime.  It’s that simple.  No commuting the sentence.  No reduction of sentence due to ‘credits’ or how fast you can swim  You made committed a horrific crime.  Go to jail.  For the appropriate sentence.  Extreme of me to think so?  Absolutely.  I have zero tolerance for predators devaluing human decency with a blatant disregard to human life and respect.

Because of my annoyances with this lack of human decency and continuously seeing his name in the media, I’ve opted to stop reading anything about it.  Until today.  Today, I took the time to read the anonymous victim’s letter to Turner.  It’s not easy reading.  But I implore upon you to read it.  Digest it. Study it.  And more importantly, take it to heart.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/katiejmbaker/heres-the-powerful-letter-the-stanford-victim-read-to-her-ra?utm_term=.uhDP5k8M#.qdy57Alb

Despite how it may seem with my above words; I’m not writing today to debate the charges or sentencing. I’m not writing today to debate the existence of entitlement. I’m not writing to evangelize a cause. I’m not writing to use this tragedy or this young woman’s torturous recovery as a vehicle to promote a cause or advance my agenda.

Then again, maybe I am.  If you consider my ‘cause’ human decency.  Then yes, I’m trying to advance my ‘cause’ at the cost of the results of this tragedy.  But in all seriousness, those who know me know that this ‘cause’ has existed in me long before the stories of the “unconscious intoxicated woman” or Brock Turner.

I cannot fathom what it would be like to be a victim of such a horrible crime.  I can’t even pretend to be close to understanding it.  And there’s no way I would even try to relate any disrespect in my life in contrast to this even being mentioned here.  I wouldn’t do that or talk about me or my struggles in the same breath.

But all of my ranting really comes back to the basics of respect.

A shred of human decency and respect begins to erode the walls of disrespect and intolerance between us all.  It can stop the patronizing and the bullying.  It can stop with the passive-aggressive undertones of dysfunctional relationships.  It can reduce the levels of intolerable violence and shootings.  Respect leads to tolerance.  And in my idealistic world, this can lead to less hatred.  Less abuse.  Less drama.  Will we get there? I doubt it at times because most people are happily drifting blindly in their own misguided intolerable belief structures.  After all, we’re all human and believe we’re right all the time and others are wrong.

The incident at Stanford is a harsh example of just how far a lack of respect can go.  While the letter written by the victim is graphic, it’s also revealing into just how disrespectful some humans have become.  Lost, are we that we feel so entitled to do what we want, when we want, without concern or regard to consequence.  I hope that this young woman will be able to find the strength in herself to heal and grow.  I believe she will if any of her optimism is true at the end of her letter.  May she embrace the grace to carry on and the respect of here family and friends for her resiliency in this.  Still, it’s a shame that we do such inexplicable things to each other only so that we can find some sort of meaning in it all.

Take a break the positive self-affirmations that you post to Facebook that you never follow.  Stop with the gossiping and the defamation of each other.  Stop with the judgements and the condescending superiority complexes we all have at times.  I feel like I’m dropping all of these imperatives like some micro-managing Lumberg from Office Space.  I’m just as guilty as everyone else.  When I take a look in the mirror, I know I have great room for growth and a high ceiling for improving how I treat others.  This entry isn’t meant to be hypocritical and point fingers at others to make a change and practice more respect, human decency and tolerance.  This is to rally all of us, including me, to a movement of respect of others.  If nothing else, we can all make a step today toward respect of others and ourselves.  Even a little step would be for the greater good.

Teach others the value of respect and human decency.  Teach your children respect and respect will come back to them.