Folk Alley is featuring Joy Kills Sorrow's This Unknown Science

07Sep

Folk Alley is featuring Joy Kills Sorrow as a "Folk Alley First Listen" - Read on:

Boston-based string band Joy Kills Sorrow is set to release their sophomore studio full-length album, This Unknown Science, on the venerable indie label Signature Sounds on Tuesday, September 13, 2011.

You can hear it first HERE in its entirety before it comes out!

The early twenty-somethings that comprise the band Joy Kills Sorrow deliver string-based music that reflects a zealousness for indie-rock and 'new folk.' The quintet, who all have graduated from top schools such as Berklee College of Music and The New England Conservatory of Music, favors an uncalculated approach to songwriting - one that heavily relies on musical chemistry and improvisation. Hence the title of their new release, This Unknown Science.

Joy Kills Sorrow brings together an eclectic mix of musicians who ambitiously utilize their years of study to hone a new acoustic territory yet discovered by many of today's top artists. It's an amalgamation of lamenting music of the heartland, singular stories of heartache and laughter, beautiful string arrangements, and five musicians who grew up listening to indie-rock, jazz, and pop music that churn out impressive tunes with an incredibly contemporary sensibility.

Although the bulk of these 11 selections were written or co-written by Bridget Kearney, they don't truly become Joy Kills Sorrow songs until all five members have put their stamp on a new tune. What resonates most throughout This Unknown Science is an understated approach that serves this modern American string band so well; the individual members play their instruments with formidable, prize-winning skill, but they do so in service of melodies and lyrics that can communicate just as powerfully with a Brooklyn twenty-something as a retiree in the Blue Ridge Mountains. And while Joy Kills Sorrow makes it sound as easy as 1-2-3, this isn't music as math; it takes chemistry, trial-and-error, and unspecified quantities of that little something extra to make a record as special as this.