Album Review: Joshua - Choices

Spot the fashionably mellow indie hipster! No? OK, well here’s Joshua (the band) instead. ‘Choices’ is a fairly straightforward package, emblematic of a kind of smooth, uninspiring indie that’s becoming all too common. It’s a decent affair, if you’re into this sort of thing, but really it’s all a tad samey and quite disappointingly banal.

‘Goodbye Grey Afternoon’ is the one glimpse of promise on an otherwise mundane collection. It’s a tremendous opener, atmospheric, with a gorgeously sombre tone and delicate instrumentation that renders it almost poignant. What follows, unfortunately, is roughly the same song in eight different packages. ‘We Got Old’ is probing, mellow, yet too monotone to inspire much by way of reaction. ‘Temporary Flight Restrictions’ is a little more interesting – there are delusions of melodrama in the middle, with a rather angsty guitar flick completely offsetting the unassuming vocals. The incongruous tone gives a song a kind of immediacy that endears a tad, but it doesn’t do enough to stand out from the monochrome crowd.

The album cuts a direct path from there to its conclusion – there are glimpses of vigour in ‘The Defeatist’ and ‘Oh My Dear’ but ultimately, everything remains quite airy and light. In this respect, the vocals are at fault – technically, they’re good but as an embellishment they maintain the same tedious course and barely flesh out the music at all. As a result, ‘Choices’ feels insubstantial, like there’s a vital piece missing from the puzzle. I have a feeling there may be more here than meets the eye, but Joshua will have to offer more reasons for us to look.

2/5

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Words by Grace Duffy