Joy Electric

Item: The White Songbook
Author: David O.

The White Songbook

(2001)

Reviewed by David O.

Discogs Apple Music TIDAL Amazon Music Spotify YouTube Music

Label Tooth & Nail RecordsReAL Magazine2001

art rock electronic synth pop

The White Songbook is Joy Electric's attempt at a theme record. Ronnie Martin, the chief composer/songwriter of the group wanted to create a sort of "soundtrack to a great work of Christian Literature," like The Chronicles of Narnia or The Lord of the Rings. This isn't hard to see, as the song titles are divided into chapters and marked by letters instead of numbers, and most of the songs have something to do with fairy tale imagery, which Martin has been relying heavily upon since the band's conception.

This "fairly wonderland" jargon grows tired very quickly, as Martin's metaphors are either too vague to comprehend, or too silly. Take these word from 'The Heritage Bough' for example: "greet me ice queen / in spite / favors once sung by ravers / reared on newsboys learned in Hungarian, by greek historians." What? Though it may make perfect sense to Martin, it sounds like poorly rhymed gibberish to the listener. Whereas Tolkien's and Lewis' use of symbolism and theme are purposeful and clear, Martin seems to be throwing images around that only he has a grip on.

Many of these songs are pretty good by themselves. 'The Boy Who Never Forgot,' 'Unicornicopia,' and the aggressive dance-beat driven 'A New Pirate Traditional,' are solid songs with cool melodies and keyboard hooks. Unfortunately, the album is just too long, clocking in at over an hour, for any of these songs to be really memorable. It's very difficult for a band to hold a listener's attention for this long. The White Songbook is no exception.

Martin uses only electronic instruments on this record. No guitars or drums can be found. Though this is a novel idea, it gets old after three songs. Despite interesting compositions and decent melodies, an hour is much too long to have to listen to the Nintendo-like "bleeps" and "binks" that permeate every song on this record. Much of the record has a sort of eighties/electronic music/Goth feel (see: 'Sing Once For Me'), and though this is fun for awhile, there isn't enough variety to keep the listener interested. There aren't enough surprises, and as many of the songs are over four minutes long, the record spurs impatience and thumb twiddling.

Great theme records have been made in recent years. The Flaming Lip's record, The Soft Bulletin, is full of great lyrical insight and songs that possess a sort of continuity while differing enough to keep the listener interested. This is where Joy Electric falls short. They do not appear to have the musical or lyrical know-how to create such a collection of songs. They have tried to create an epic theme record, and as a result have taken themselves too seriously. Melody, their first record, is great because it doesn't try too hard. It's playful and fun. They seem to have gotten away from this on The White Songbook. It's hard to take a barrage of electronic whistles and beats seriously, especially while Martin is singing about a 'Unicornicopia.' With this record Joy Electric jumped in waters a little over their fairy tale-filled heads.