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* Shoegaze * Indie * Post-Rock * Grunge * Dream Pop * Psych-Rock * Ethereal *
ARTIST..: Joy Zipper
ALBUM...: American Whip
GENRE...: Indie
STYLE...: Dream Pop, Twee Pop, Indie Pop, Neo-Psychedelia, Indie Rock
RETAIL..: 2004-04-27
LABEL...: Vertigo
COUNTRY.: USA
FORMED..: New York City, NY
ENCODER.: FLAC 1.3.1 -8 -V
BITRATE.: 858 kbps avg
QUALITY.: 44.1kHz / 2 channels
SOURCE..: CD
TRACKS..: 12
SIZE....: 269.24 MB
URL..: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Whip
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joy_Zipper
https://www.popmatters.com/joyzipper-american-2495949741.html
https://www.tinymixtapes.com/music-review/joy-zipper-american-whip
https://www.discogs.com/release/1391951-Joy-Zipper-American-Whip
https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/joy-zipper/american-whip
https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/5f3n
- TRACKLIST
1 Sunstroke 0:59
2 Christmas Song 3:38
3 Baby You Should Know 4:31
4 33x 3:25
5 Out Of The Sun 4:28
6 Drugs 0:24
7 Dosed And Became Invisible 4:16
8 Alzheimers 4:32
9 Ron 3:36
10 In The Never Ending Search For A 6:18
Suitable Enemy
11 VSX 0:52
12 Valley Stream 4:34
Total Playtime: 41:33
Vinny Cafiso could've had a lucrative career as a crime boss on the strength
of his name alone. He opted into music instead, currently playing in
dream-pop act Joy Zipper with long-term S.O. Tabitha Tindale. The duo's
sophomore album, American Whip, has been out in England since last year,
accumulating predictable comparisons to Brian Wilson, My Bloody Valentine (a
given-- Kevin Shields helped mix a few tracks, and his big neon fingerprints
are all over it), and Air.
These takes are understandable: This particular strain of dreamy shoegaze is
pure surface and form, and trying to write about it can be like trying to
review a cloud: Does it look like an ice-cream cone or a mermaid? Does it
matter? There's barely time to name its shape before the wind changes it
again, and no matter what it looks like, it's only eddying mist.
American Whip is engaging and sharply-drawn-- a spun-sugar confection of pale
pinks and lemony yellows, oversaturated harmonies and gently whirring
guitars, layers of liquid drone, the saccharine punch of outsized strings and
horns.
On "Christmas Song", humming organ sunrises backlight translucent clouds of
guitar, slashed with deep auburn wounds by the huge, breathy harmonies. "33x"
finds Tindale doing her cute robot number over mournful slides and drenched
chamber strings, and "Out of the Sun" is a kicky little psych-pop smokeout
with a deliriously stacked vocal chorus. If American Whip makes you
viscerally confront your mortality, you're probably looking too closely, like
peering at a Monet from inches away when just standing back to enjoy the
tableau is the more appropriate response.
*
- Charming melodies, heart-melting harmonies and hazy lo-fi guitars distil
into an... -
In 2003, Ministry of Sound pulled the financial rug from under the feet of
their tributary 13 Amp label, indefinitely suspending the release of Joy
Zipper's American Whip. Fifteen months on, the Long Island duo's second album
has finally been saved from obscurity. And about time, too.
Joy Zipper are Tabitha Tindale and Vincent Cafiso. Named after Tabitha's mum,
they've been a couple for around ten years, which might explain the gooey
sentimentality that occasionally graces their work. Essentially, the Joy
Zipper sound hasn't deviated much from that of their eponymous debut album in
2000. Their charming melodies, heart-melting harmonies and hazy lo-fi guitars
distil into an intoxicating alt-pop nectar.
But, underneath the saccharine My Bloody Valentine-style orchestration lies a
darker underbelly; at times, Tindale's voice entices with the bittersweet
allure of a Siren's song. On the blissful "33x", for instance, she sings 'I'm
getting tired of life' with all the innocent charm of a nursery rhyme.
American Whip tells tales of infatuation, drugs, making enemies and,
strangely, mental disorders (see the eerie "Alzheimer's"). It seems the duo's
intriguing mix of sweet and sinister is the result of a blossoming song
writing partnership. "I tend to write more of the poppier things, I think
that's in my nature", Tindale reveals. "Vinny writes more of the cerebral,
weird things. Combined together, that's why it works, that's why we're Joy
Zipper."
It's certainly an irresistible combination. "Baby You Should Know", "Ron" and
"Out Of the Sun" all feature mesmerizing choruses that'll have you grinning
like a child. Out of twelve songs, however, three fall short of a minute
long, making American Whip disappointingly short. Consequently, you wouldn't
want to set it to repeat play; it's a bit like hot chocolate with
marshmallow: nice, but a little sickly after several mugs. That said, it
remains an enchanting and comforting record that should keep you warm 'til
summer.
*
When I was little I arbitrarily liked the Beach Boys. I admired Good
Vibrations but wasn t sure why. I d never heard Pet Sounds, and when I
finally did, I just couldn t get it. So it s telling that it took several
listens for me to warm up to Joy Zipper s music. Originally slated for
release in 03 before being shelved due to the usual label politicking, and
then released internationally last year, the Long Island-based couple s
sophomore effort, American Whip, is finally getting a stateside release in
05. The duo s stylish, baroque pop can be traced back to myriads of
influences, but it s the psychedelic samples, live strings, sun-soaked
harmonies, and crisscrossing vocal parts that are most prominent, recalling
the Byrds and, yes, the Beach Boys seminal 1966 album. Of course, other,
more modern influences can be found in American Whip s rush of static-y
guitars (My Bloody Valentine) and quiet electronic drones (David Holmes, who
co-produced four tracks here, and Air). And speaking of Air, Joy Zipper s
33x could have been Lux Lisbon s theme song in The Virgin Suicides like
much of the album, the song questions death and the meaning of physical life
in particular: Pulled back my skin and found a mannequin/If I m straight
like a line then I am dying (they go on to use the word mannequin again on
the very next track, Out Of The Sun, this time as an adjective). It s this
juxtaposition of probing, melancholy lyrics and sprightly background music
that makes American Whip so entrancing. Dip your toes beneath the glistening
atmospheres of tracks like Valley Stream and In The Never Ending Search
For A Suitable Enemy and you ll find songs about madness, drugs, mental
deterioration, and death. Brian Wilson should be proud.
*
It's important to be totally honest with you, Dear Reader.
So I feel I must share one of the most reliable crutches we who review
records rely upon to keep us sane, employed, and on deadline: The Grand
Invocation.
There are artists who, when mentioned, instantly do most of the writing for
you. Bob Dylan is one such artist. Drop the word "Dylan-esque" into a review,
and the rest could be in Swahili; no one would care. The impression of the
record would be instantly and easily understood. Other Grand Invocations:
Bruce Springsteen, the Sex Pistols, and Nirvana.
I'm reminded of this crutch by reading the stickers on the cover of Joy
Zipper's sophomore album, American Whip. Three of the four blurbs from
esteemed British music rags mention artists that Joy Zipper are reminiscent
of; two of the four mention either the Beach Boys or Brian Wilson. Brian
Wilson is one of the biggest, baddest, bestest critical crutches in the
record writer arsenal. Those are two little words that can turn a torturous
slog through 450 words about a so-so record into a quick half-hour of typing
before Wheel of Fortune comes on.
Yes, the Joy Zipper album is Wilson-esque in select spots, but that is not
all. It's too morose to live up to the Wilson tag, for one thing; there's joy
in this record, but nothing ebullient. American Whip is also not as densely
layered as Wilson's most successful work. A fairer description would be to
say that American Whip is orchestral in spots, poppy in others, and all
around a great little record.
There's something pretty but distant about the best moments on this album.
That's not Wilson-esque, either. Pet Sounds is beautiful, like the love of
your life brushing her arm against yours, and American Whip is further away.
It doesn't come to you; you have to reach for it.
As I type this, I'm listening again to the final track on the record, "Vally
Stream," and one-half of Joy Zipper, Vincent Cafiso, is singing quietly,
"You're the moon and I'm the sun " The words are sort of shimmering in the
air around my cheap office boombox, and it's like I'm looking at someone
beautiful walking down the street, close enough to appreciate but too distant
to savor. I'm wondering what the song's past is, what its future might be,
where the tune is going and where it's been. I'm curious to know everything
about it, but I know I'll never know. So I'm listening at it, staring at it,
thinking about it in a dreamy way, but not dreaming about it.
I guess what I'm saying is that this is a record you'll develop a crush on.
You'll write notes about it in the margins of your papers at school, you'll
talk endlessly to your friends about it, and you'll wonder what it's doing at
any given moment throughout the day. If it's got a flaw, it's that it may be
a little too far away, but so is the sun, and it'll still burn your eyes if
you stare long enough.
*
Ah, couples in bands. From the 70s AOR nightmare of Wings to the more
credible strains of Sonic Youth, the conceit of an outfit featuring at least
two people shagging each other has held the appeal of many a hack.
Mercifully, perhaps, Joy Zipper have more in common with the latter of the
bands mentioned above, more so then their shared New York roots. Vinny Cafiso
and Tabitha Tindale may well have passed under this particular pop periscope
since their 2000 debut, but American Whip more than makes up for lost time.
This is no small part to the extracted single Baby You Should Know, a
wonderfully murky slice of shoegazing revivalism which should fit quite
nicely into my top five singles of 2004 come December time. Cafiso and
Tindale's voices entwine with a lazy ease that betrays their obvious
familiarity with the other. It's a superb tribute to a sound that has been,
sadly, retrospectively derided by many.
However, the album isn't based around droning guitars and breathy vocals,
which is something of a relief for those with a taste for variety who also
aren't keen on seeing old Slowdive albums being pillaged for all their worth.
Christmas Song saunters with a summer's grove, though lines such as 'You know
I'm always watching' has a certain sinister air to upset the apple cart just
a little amongst 'I love you more then a thousand Christmases'.
At times, it's hard to pinpoint quite what direction Joy Zipper are coming
from - 33x's slide guitar alongside Tindale's almost-talking vocals brings to
mind the many fine moments that Mazzy Star provided with us, while the
opening bars to Out Of The Sun bring the best moments of 60s pop into the
21st century. The epic is perhaps the six minute (brilliantly titled) In The
Never Ending Search For A Suitable Enemy, possibly the point where the duo's
vocals are most perfectly matched, providing the soundtrack for late Spring
evenings drinking away future worries.
American Whip is by no means perfect, the odd track is often screaming for an
injection of life into it while the short asides peppered across the album
act as more irritants then distractions, the main suspect being Drugs, whose
24 seconds only serves to show that the eponymous subject remains as dull as
ever even when encapsulated in a few lines. But, but, but... minor complaints
aside, while this album may well be overlooked by many, it will be cherished
by those who afford it the further investigation it so clearly deserves.
*
About:
Joy Zipper is an American indie pop duo from Long Island, New York, made up
of Tabitha Tindale and Vincent Cafiso, who are also a married couple. The duo
has been playing dream pop since the late 1990s. The band is named for
Tindale's mother. Their songs are underpinned with darker scarred lyrics
(suggested in interviews to have been inspired by the death of Cafiso's
father) causing them to be famously compared to, 'a candy apple with a razor
blade inside'. Musical influences of the band vary from 1960s rock outfits
The Beatles, The Velvet Underground and most associated, The Beach Boys, to
early 1990s noise rock pioneers My Bloody Valentine, and The Breeders.
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Shoegaze
is a genre of alternative rock that
originated in the late 80s. The genre is very
difficult to define, and it is even more difficult to evaluate music
within it. Generally, the genre is characterized by its
shimmering vocals, reverberating guitars, and
textural distortion that create
a tranquil, opaque
feeling.
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