Birth of Joy are a three piece Dutch rock band , who describe their sound as “Sixties on steroids. Psychedelic organ rock and roll” , 'Get Well' is their fourth studio album , a live album ' Live at Ubu' was released in 2015.
First track 'Blisters' contains a crunchy guitar riff similar to recent Biffy Clyro output and a big chorus “ Gotta find a way, give me a sign” as the big, fat Deep Purple style organ sounds appear for the first time. The pace unfortunately drops for the second track ' Meet Me At The Bottom' as Gertjan Gutman's big and beefy, bouncy organ sounds and Kevin Stunnenberg's guitars are involved in a musical muddy puddle of a battle for the instrumental section which made my speakers complain. 'Choose Sides' has a cleaner sound and is better for it, where you can actually hear that the band are considerable musicians who can create a good tune. There's a total Jon Lord (ex-Deep Purple , but sadly no longer with us) keyboard takeover for 'Those Who Are Awake' and 'Carabiner' as the keyboard riff propels the song along at a pleasing pace.
Best track is the single ' You Got Me Howling' which kicks up the pace again, with a rattling drum intro and the stabs of organ sound throughout the track as it bounces and bangs along, this is really good stuff.
Unfortunately a lot of the good work is undone by the one misstep which is 'Midnight Cruise'. Key lyrics include “She's my woman with the excellent touch”, “She knows how to turn me on”, or low point “She comes all dressed in black, she's smoking hot she makes me sweat” all accompanied by an organ sound which just says sleazy. Now either I don't appreciate the Dutch version of irony, or copies of Spinal Tap didn't make it to Holland as we're getting uncomfortably close to Spinal Tap's 'Big Bottom' here. Either way this track could have been left off the album and I doubt anyone would have missed it.
Cleansing the memories of 'Midnight Cruise' is the title track which sees us heading deep down the psychedelic river with Apocalypse Now's Captain Willard on his journey to find Kurtz, sound tracked by The Doors as Jim Morrison's face melts into a haze of bright swirling colours. Again Birth of Joy show they can write really interesting and diverse songs which are played by obviously talented musicians.
Subtle will never be a word used to describe Birth of Joy , but if you like your rock music with a big beefy sound and you can avoid 'Midnight Cruise' then this might be for you.
8/11
Alisdair Whyte
