Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Track Review: "This Human Joy"

Artist: Ajimal ft. Emily Holie
Release Date: March 25, 2013
Label: Pop Sex Ltd



"This Human Joy," the second track that has been released in anticipation of Ajimal's upcoming Childhood project, is a fragile folk piece that could be described as something halfway between the orchestral folk popularized in the first decade of the 2000s and Jeff Buckley circa Grace. Such comparisons as the latter are obvious, but the lush instrumentation of "This Human Joy" and the vulnerably beautiful falsetto in which Ajimal sings it make them impossible to avoid. Although the song still would have been powerful if it were simply Ajimal sitting down at the piano, the tender harp flourishes added at the first refrain keep the track from being just another soft-rock throwaway. With ethereal harmonies and sweeping strings to spare, "This Human Joy" slowly grows from the aforementioned bare-bones sound to a triumphantly contained climax that sounds like Sigur Rรณs-- had they decided to ditch post-rock for a more straightforward chamber pop sound. There is something to enjoy for casual and critical listeners alike in Ajimal's latest, but it is the unique grandiose of the track and the organic quality of the lead vocal that makes the wait for Childhood all that harder to endure.

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