(2018) Mt. Joy - Mt. Joy

Review: 
Formed by Philadelphia natives Matt Quinn and Sam Cooper, Mt. Joy are an affable indie folk outfit with a lightly scuffed, retro tone and a whole lot of earnest intention. Friends and musical collaborators since their high school days, several years of college and career detours parted the two friends until 2016 when they both found themselves living in Los Angeles. The reunion soon sparked a wealth of new material which they began recording with Detroit-born producer Caleb Nelson under the banner of Mt. Joy, in a nod to their Pennsylvanian roots. Their first two singles, “Astrovan” & “Sheep,” offered a laid-back mix of bluesy folk-rock grooves and road trip-worthy songwriting that immediately struck a chord with fans who streamed the tracks on Spotify several million times in their first year. 
Those songs, along with their easy-mannered third indie single, “Cardinal,” form the heart of Mt. Joy’s self-titled debut on the Dualtone label. Behind Quinn’s soulful introspections and Cooper’s rootsy electric riffing, the band runs through a baker’s dozen of amiable, if somewhat unchallenging, tunes that meld the stompy indie folk grit of the Lumineers with the cleaner pop-oriented folk of someone like Vance Joy. Throughout the set, Mt. Joy explore the anxieties, trials, and exuberance of contemporary twenty-somethingdom with big-hearted shout-outs to “the drugs, the women, the wine, the week, the love that took everything I own” on the anthemic “Silver Lining.” They band also cover the bases of romantic balladry like the faux-Philly Soul of “Julia” and the strummy ode to “Jenny Jenkins.” 
While Mt. Joy have managed to attack each song with the requisite tools of the tonal folk-rock zeitgeist, the results feel a little too rote and middle-of-the-road for this debut to leave much of an impact. 

Tracklist: 
01 - I'm Your Wreck.flac 
02 - Dirty Love.flac 
03 - Silver Lining.flac 
04 - Bigfoot.flac 
05 - Sheep.flac 
06 - Julia.flac 
07 - Mt. Joy.flac 
08 - Astrovan.flac 
09 - Cardinal.flac 
10 - Jenny Jenkins.flac 
11 - Sado.flac 
12 - St. George.flac 
13 - Younger Days.flac 

Summary: 
Country: USA 
Genre: folk-rock, indie-folk