You'll notice The Joy Formidable's sound being described as "indie rock" which is weird because they are on Atlantic. But you know—genre tags. What's up with those? Never works out how you want. The Joy Formidable is indie rock in the same way that Michael Cera is indie rock. More projecting this idea of shuffled feet and downcast eyes than actually being that thing. And then when the chorus explodes and you're like, Yeah alright I can totally see this going viral, and if Hipster Runoff has taught us anything, it's that whether you want it and the bands know it or not, that really is the end goal for everyone ever who picks up an instrument and tries to "make it." Might as well own it, which we're not sure this band is even doing. What they are doing though, is making good, straightforward rock music. The choruses are huge, the guitars have enough texture that we're compelled to make a '90s female alt-rock reference but won't because we've all kind of had enough of those for awhile. Take this as a shift change if you want. An embracing of the past couple years of rock music that spread out across 7-inches, transplanted onto a bigger platform. Someone, somewhere is going to be mad about this, lucky for that person (let's be real, it'll be more than one), they don't even have to listen.