By Amanda Giglio

Lately, I have grown bored with my usual music choices, resorting to Spotify’s “browse” option to find new music and genres. This past week, one of the featured artists was Joywave, which just put out their new album How Do You Feel Now? An indie electro band from Rochester, New York, Joywave began in 2010, starting with eighties-inspired electro tunes and gaining more attention though their mixes of original songs and covers of other artists’ material. Not knowing much about the band, I was intrigued to hear this new album.

How Do You Feel Now? starts with heavy guitar and thrashing percussion in the song “Somebody New,” which sets the precedent for the amazing vocals of Daniel Armbruster. Each song after the first has a very different tone, with new and upbeat melodies. The one unexpected element of this album is the intermittent soundbites from films such as Disney’s Bambi and Fantasia. This adds context to these songs, with “In Clover” beginning after Thumper from Bambi talks about eating flowers, adding to the mellow and relaxed sound of the song. This is a nice change of pace from songs like “Destruction” and “Parade” which give you more aggressive sounds while still adding danceable synths.

As the album progresses, the songs get more easy-going and the lyrics become more intense and relatable. “Nice House” is a beachy song that speaks of growing up, getting away and having “my own place.” The song closes with quiet harp music that brings you into a dream-like state.

I have a hard time listening to a whole album through, but How Do You Feel Now? is one of the few albums that I can listen to fully and even multiple times. And with Spring Weekend in full swing, Joywave is a great way to get pumped up. In particular, the song “Tongues” featuring KOPPS has fun beats that are easy to dance to and keep you smiling, which is a great way to start your early morning party for Spring Weekend.