As a kid, my mother always told me that my tastes would change as I got older. I wasn’t a picky eater, but I especially didn’t like certain foods. While her proclamations proved mostly true, I still don’t enjoy bell peppers, mushrooms, and eggplant.
When I was in college, my parents told me my political tastes would change, that I would become more conservative when I got a grown-up job and started a family. Additionally, my friends and I theorized that most people’s taste in music and movies stopped evolving when they hit 25 or had their first kid – whichever came first.
Neither of those happened to me.
Not only are my political beliefs further left than ever before, but I regularly enjoy a wildly different slate of musical sounds than I did just a decade ago. If you would have told even 30-year-old me that my favorite acts these days would be off-kilter electronic artists, underground hip-hop, and gauzy folk singers, I would have laughed in your face and continued my quest to write exclusively about angular indie guitar rock.
Which brings me to the latest album to strike my fancy – Spirit Tamer by Mia Joy. Released on Fire Talk Records, this 12-song debut album fuses breathy indie-pop with bedroom surf rock to achieve the purest of chill vibes. Joy’s quiet alto calls to mind dreamy ASMR complemented by tremolo-soaked guitars, warm synth chords, and tender percussion.
It’s as if Kacey Musgraves, Beach House, and Soccer Mommy joined forces to recreate Air’s The Virgin Suicides soundtrack.
This project delivers wave upon wave of peaceful grooves while consistently holding your attention. Joy’s musical abilities carry the day, as her tasteful yet expressive guitar work shimmers and shines. It comes close to taking center stage when the instrument’s warbles serve as the melodic counterpoint to her effortless and airy vocals. Yet instead of the reverb and delay pedals scrubbing all the tension from her tone, it delivers rich textural contrast to the other instruments in the mix.
“Heaven Forbid,” “See Us,” and “Haha” provide candy-coated dream-pop, the perfect sort of music for a dreary afternoon spent lounging in bed. With “See Us” and “Last Night Together (Arthur),” I imagine day drinking on the back deck under a cloudy sky that will never rain – perfectly matching my melancholy mood. And on “Freak” and “Saturn,” we lie down for the night under a weighted sonic blanket.
To be clear, there’s nothing specifically new or unique here. The entire 4AD roster has been dedicated to this aesthetic for decades. However, there’s a freshness and blissfulness that I can’t deny.
I like what I feel from these songs, and sometimes, that’s all I want from my music.
With Spirit Tamer, Mia Joy delivers calming aural washes that also have presence. Moreover, she creates therapeutic pop art that rejects being turned into inoffensive background music.
The songs want to sit down beside you at the end of a long day, hold your hand gently, and listen to you talk about your day as you decompress together. They encourage me to sit still, take several deep breaths, and clear my mind of what’s bothering me. I then have the mental capacity to engage with the subtleties and nuances Mia Joy assembled.
The fact that this album is so far removed from what I thought I’d be enjoying at this time of my life makes it even sweeter.
That’s the genius of keeping an open mind about art as you age. Give yourself room to engage with something outside your comfort zone. You might learn something new about yourself and create a refreshing experience.
So, the next time someone says your tastes will calcify as you age, politely reject that claim and encourage them to listen to something new. That tactic has definitely worked for me!