Current Joys – ‘East My Love’ album review: Folk in the modern age
THE SKINNY: The folk genre will exist in music for as long as people use sound to seek truth. Self-expression can come in a ray of different forms, but there doesn’t seem to be any quite as honest and authentic as folk. Current Joys, also known as Nick Rattigan, is the perfect personification of this on his new album, East My Love.
The record shows Rattigan exploring the complicated nature of relationships, making his way through both the happy, sad, complex, and hopeless sides of forming connections. The tone of the album shifts depending on the theme of a song, but all tracks firmly plant themselves within the troubled, wayward stranger branch of folk. The narrative is kept at the heart of the tracks, and there is a consistent tone throughout the album.
A common criticism of folk-inspired music is that it leaves little room for manoeuvre as far as an artist is concerned. Honesty and authenticity are the most important pillars of this record, and yet Rattigan is able to explore different branches of the genre throughout the album which is exciting to listen to.
There is undoubtedly variation present, but only so much can be explored on a record like this before tracks start to feel stale and repetitive. That being said, East My Love, feels like a real modern interpretation of folk music and is a fun album to immerse yourself in.
For fans of: Waywarding, pondering and sombre things.
A concluding comment from a man who has seen a lot of things and been a lot of places: “Let me tell you, I’ve seen a lot of things and been a lot of places. This is a good record.”
East My Love track by track
Release date: October 11th | Label: Secretly Canadian | Producer: Andrew Sarlo
‘Echoes of the Past’: If time travelling were real, it would sound like this. The singalong aspect of this song, paired with the strings, feels classic, yet that classic feel is coupled with modern themes of body issues and self-depreciation. This is how a folk song sounds in 2024. [3.5/5]
‘California Rain’: The song remains consistent in tone to the opener but feels more full-bodied. The strings, paired with shimmering guitars and drums, show that a raw folk feel can exist in a modern and exciting setting. The song can find a place in the intimacy of your headphones or the stadium community. Vulnerability at scale is possible. [4/5]
‘Days of Heaven’: A slow and serene minute is our entry point into the album. The tone is well and truly set. Are you in or out? [n/a]
‘Never Seen a Rose’: An upbeat funk-infused folk song as far as instrumentation is concerned, yet the vocals are a real surprise. The words are whispered, drowning in woefulness that belongs on a nostalgic emo or modern shoegaze track rather than here. That being said, it works. The two merge in a way that sounds modern and innovative but not forced. A lot of people won’t like it, but I do. [4/5]
‘Lullaby for the Lost’: Sit yourself down for this six-minute ballad. ‘Lullaby for the Lost’ really cements this album as one which is consistently inconsistent. The tone and instrumentation on each track have been fairly constant, but the way songs are put together, the vocal performance on them, and their structure make for a very individualistic listen. The epic singalong nature of this song has nostalgia running through every second, but at the same time, it feels like a new approach to an old idea rather than something being recycled. [3.5/5]
‘Oh, Sister’: A slightly more upbeat number, which is needed right after the tranquil nature of ‘Lullaby for the Lost’. There is probably an argument to be made against long songs on an album like this, where tracks come with the risk of overlapping with one another, as numbers like ‘Oh Sister’ end up sounding like insignificant palette cleansers in the wake of the behemoth that came before. [3/5]
‘They Shoot Horses’: On an album full of slow and serene numbers, ‘They Shoot Horses’ takes those two traits and emphasises them even further. Another long song, this track explores the idea of turning your back on your problems. The instrumentation is equal parts soft and comforting but also confrontational. It feels like a real revelation. [3.5/5]
‘Slowly Like The Wind’: While still an acoustic number, this track feels more jaunty than the previous ones. The major harmonies and rhythm of this song inspire feelings of hope, which is in keeping with the song’s theme. [3.5/5]
‘Tormenta’: The general issues that manifest with an album like this start to become more present around this point. The vocals are good, as are the lyrics. The theme is also beautiful. That being said, the avenues available for the band to explore within this sound are starting to feel exhausted. There are questions to be asked, namely: should we have stopped here? And there are answers to be answered, namely: yeah, probably. [3/5]
‘Sister Christian’: Easily one of the heaviest songs on the album. The distortion is a much-need shift in tone, and the guitar work sounds like a real ode to classic rock. It’s good, but it comes slightly too late in the album, to the point that it feels like a break in our regular scheduled programming instead of an exploration of versatility. [3.5/5]
‘East My Love’: Gospel-like. Pleading. Desperate. Deeply moving. The tone on the album might remain consistent, but when presented in a way like this, it’s impossible to ignore. The emotion embedded in this song is undeniable. The track has a similar chord progression throughout but continues to shift in intensity, which keeps the listener on their toes. At over eight minutes long, ‘East My Love’ keeps you hooked, but it comes at the cost of diminishing the impact of some of the other tracks on the album. [4.5/5]
‘Feelin’ Groovy’: A punk-like outro makes it so that we don’t end the album on too serious a note. It’s lovely and necessary, and brings things to a concise end. [3/5]
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