The Joy Formidable - The Big Roar (2021)

After self-releasing their eight-track A Balloon Called Moaning EP, The Joy Formidable spent 2009 touring the U.K., Europe and Australia with bands including Editors, Temper Trap and Passion Pit, mastering tiny clubs and festival stages alike. Along the way, they earned critical raves from NME, The Guardian, the London Times, Spin and Pitchfork, and praise from Garbage's Shirley Manson and Courtney Love, among others.

When they weren't on the road, the band worked on writing and tracking the material for The Big Roar. "We recorded in a tiny corner of our London bedroom," says guitarist and lead singer Ritzy Bryan. "It was great, because you could capture that moment when you wake up in the middle of the night with a melody or an image or a lyric." Working on and off for a year, the trio -- Bryan, bassist Rhydian Dafydd and drummer Matthew Thomas -- crafted a remarkable collection of modern rock songs that explore what Bryan describes as "the possibility of victory in a hopeless situation." Adds Dafydd: "The album covers a lot of emotional range. It's captured the battle between the eternal optimist and the manic depressive."

The band produced The Big Roar themselves, with help from engineer Neak Menter. They traveled to Los Angeles in summer of 2010 to mix it with Rich Costey (Muse, Foo Fighters, Glasvegas). The Village Voice called the album's first single, "I Don't Want To See You Like This," "one of the band's best offerings yet, a breakup song that looks forward to the other side of heartache, with racing guitars and thundering drums that seem engineered to snap both parts of the still-attached couple out of their sad state.