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Darkness Sure Becomes This City
Joy Kills Sorrow
Darkness Sure Becomes This City
Genres: Folk, Pop
 
Joy Kills Sorrow's second album (their first for Signature Sounds) effortlessly merges influences as diverse as bluegrass, jazz, indie rock, folk, R&B, and Celtic traditions. The music that emerges is dark and often fu...  more »

     
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CD Details

All Artists: Joy Kills Sorrow
Title: Darkness Sure Becomes This City
Members Wishing: 2
Total Copies: 0
Label: Signature Sounds
Original Release Date: 1/1/2010
Re-Release Date: 2/23/2010
Genres: Folk, Pop
Style: Traditional Folk
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaCD Credits: 1
Other Editions: Darkness Sure Becomes This City
UPC: 701237202723

Synopsis

Album Description
Joy Kills Sorrow's second album (their first for Signature Sounds) effortlessly merges influences as diverse as bluegrass, jazz, indie rock, folk, R&B, and Celtic traditions. The music that emerges is dark and often funny, ruminating on modern life and love with eloquence and wit. Darkness Sure Becomes This City presents a radical new strain of folk music, one that bravely breaks with tradition even as it salutes the past. The Boston-based string band brings a decidedly modern sensibility to an old-world sound, channeling the prodigious talents of its individual members into elegant arrangements and well-crafted songs. While the group pays due homage to its Bluegrass roots--its name is taken from WJKS, a radio station that broadcasted the Monroe brothers' show in the 1930s--the band truly excels in its rich and textured treatment of more contemporary material.

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CD Reviews

Highly recommended
A. M. Morse | Philadelphia, PA | 03/07/2010
(4 out of 5 stars)

"fan of folk? bluegrass? old school country? you'll find something to get into on this album. what i love most about the music of this band is that they really know when to cut loose and when to exercise restraint, and it's evident in the prowess of every musician in this band--each instrumentalist excels both in the background and when it's their moment to take the lead. same goes for the vocals, which are occasionally delivered almost in slow motion behind frenetic banjo and mandolin lines. the band will probably grow tired of being compared to nickel creek--and they are certainly more eclectic in their instrumentation, style, and influences, but it'll be hard for them to avoid this comparison. witness "you will change me," which sounds like it could have been pulled right off nickel creek's first album. it's a great tune, though, and it fits well here. that said, the best song's here are virtually all of the original compositions and often diverge quite a bit out of that pigeonhole. a small criticism: i'd have preferred to hear more original songs in place of a couple songs here that the band did not write. highlights: "books," "get up and go," "all the buildings.""