In the Randomised Record series, I take us both on an adventure to (re)discover my record collection. Fate decides: whether it be that obscure grunge album I bought recently or that emo rap record from 2017. Nothing is safe from the hands of the randomiser! I will listen to the entire album and highlight my favourite song off of it here on the blog. Do I still enjoy my records as much as when I bought ‘em? Let’s find out. Today, episode 14: ‘Possession’ (2020) by Joywave.

It was only a matter of time before Joywave would be chosen by the randomiser. Having 4 albums being represented in my musical assortment, this band is one of the few acts of which I own a copy of the majority of its releases. For a long while, Joywave had been one of my favourite bands thanks to their funny and clever approach to the indie music genre, as well as having several fantastic music videos. For example, this album’s opener ‘Like a Kennedy’ is one of my favourite music videos of the last decade. Truly, a great video and song. Unsurprisingly, quite a few songs off of ‘Possession’ have already made it onto the blog. To be precise: 7 (!) songs are already featured in the Jam of Today playlist, including the entire first half of this album.

Actually, those are only 7 of a total of 18 Joywave songs in the Jam of Today spheres. I have truly enjoyed most releases by the Daniel Armbruster-fronted group from Rochester, New York, and they have managed to pleasantly surprise me many, many times. I’ve only once had the pleasure of seeing Joywave live: back in November 2022, the year they released their fourth album ‘Cleanse’, in the tiniest room of Amsterdam’s Melkweg. It was a true joy finally catching this band live, though seeing them perform felt like sort of the completion of my Joywave-experience. Over the course of the last few years, I haven’t listened to the Americans as much as I used to.

Together with Sir Sly’s Jason Suwito under the moniker Best Frenz, Armbruster released ‘The Mall’ in 2023 which didn’t catch on to me as much as I’d hoped (even though their vinyl releases came with a board game inside, how cool is that?!). Same goes for ‘Permanent Pleasure’, Joywave’s 2024 album. Side note: the music videos of this album are great. Being a big cat lover myself, it’s just fantastic seeing a feline friend being the protagonist on this album’s content. Back to ‘Possession’ now. Being the band’s third, it’s just not as exciting an album as 2015’s ‘How Do You Feel Now?’ or 2017’s ‘Content’ are. Both renowned for being exciting and refreshing pieces of indie rock, ‘Possession’ is a bit more middle of the road, with most songs fitting well into the standard of what indie rock was during the late teens and early twenties. Doesn’t take anything away from the fact I still find it a pleasant listen and while being familiar with most of the songs already on this album (they do come on shuffle quite often), it’s nice hearing songs like ‘Funny Thing About Opinions’ and ‘Possession’ again, which I certainly had kind of forgotten about.