Why be credible when you can be incredible? note
Joywave are an American indie-rock, alternative band from Rochester, active since 2010. Their current lineup includes frontman Daniel Armbruster, guitarist Joseph Morinelli, drummer Paul Brenner, and keyboardist Ben Bailey.
They first entered the mainstream with their collaboration with Big Data, "Dangerous", which made number one on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart in 2014. They have since released four albums: How Do You Feel Now? in April 2015, Content in July 2017, Possession in March 2020, and Cleanse in February 2022.
"Go on, don't be nervous. Go ahead. Any sound."
- 2011 — 77777 (Mixtape)
- 2012 — Koda Vista (EP)
- 2013 — 88888 (Mixtape)
- 2015 — How Do You Feel Now?
- 2016 — Swish (Compilation)
- 2017 — Content
- 2020 — Possession
- 2022 — Cleanse
"Well, that isn't quite what I had in mind..."
- Animated Music Video: The MV for "Blank Slate" is a claymation-style animation of a space satellite going on a journey.
- Fantastic Drug: The music video for "Half Your Age"
pretends to be a commercial for a fake prescription medication called Brushitall (with the name taken from a line repeated in the song's chorus: "Brush it all, brush it all, brush it all, brush it away..."). However, as the video plays out, the man in the commercial ends up growing addicted to it... and then things just get weird. - Eagleland: A "Murica the Boorish" example in "Buy American", a satirical hot take on the nation's wasteful consumer culture.
- Lyrical Dissonance: "It's a Trip" is about the dark uncertainty of dealing with fame and achieving your dreams, while the instrumental is catchy and fun.
- Production Foreshadowing: Several of the fake movies in the music video for "Obsession", initially released as a single ahead of their upcoming album "Possession", foreshadow other songs that would appear on the album. Aside from the obvious Obsession, there's also The Divine Possession, Coming Apart, Half Your Age, Blank Slate, Funny Thing About Opinions, Mr. Eastman: The Perfect Case, and F.E.A.R.
- Show Within a Show: The music video for "Obsession" is a rapid-fire montage of opening titles from fake late-20th-century-esque films, hitting just about every possible cinematic trope of the era in the process.
- Surreal Music Video: Their music videos are almost invariably a certain degree of surreal, ranging from an MP3 player becoming a member of the band ("Destruction"), hunters searching for nudists to shoot clothes back on them ("Tongues") to a man's slow descent into drug addiction disguised as a medicine ad ("Half Your Age") and the band glitching through reality while skateboarding ("Somebody New").
- Surprisingly Gentle Song:
- "Let’s Talk About Feelings" the closing track on Content is a gentle and relaxing jazz song about the beginning of a relationship in comparison to their loud and energetic rock.
- Relatively speaking, "Like A Kennedy" also counts as this.
