Band of Holy Joy - Dreams Take Flight (2021)

A rough-and-tumble British band with a melodic folk-punk sound, Band of Holy Joy emerged out of London in the mid-80s, delivering songs steeped in the grit and grime of London street life while maintaining a defiant and often optimistic call-to-arms tone. Led by frontman Johny Brown, they earned critical acclaim with 1989's Manic, Magic, Majestic on Rough Trade, but ultimately fell apart a couple of years after the label's 1991 demise. Almost a decade later, Brown re-formed the band and they worked sporadically throughout the 2000s, then enjoyed a particularly fruitful and creative period in the front half of the 2010s, when they released five more albums. In the late 2010s, Band of Holy Joy issued an ambitious trilogy of politically driven releases which concluded with 2019's Neon Primitives.
The group formed in the New Cross area of London in 1984 out of the remains of a previous punk band called Speed. Their initial sound bore a uniquely guitar-less set-up utilizing accordion, trombone, violin, and a rhythm section which earned them comparisons to the Pogues. Upon signing to the small indie label Flim Flam, Band of Holy Joy debuted with the 1986 EP The Big Ship Sails, followed in 1987 by the full-length More Tales from the City. The group signed to Rough Trade for 1988's "Tactless" single; the next year's Manic, Magic, Majestic won widespread critical acclaim, but the commercial breakthrough projected for 1990's Positively Spooked -- an LP backed by a promotional tour of the U.S.S.R. -- never materialized. The 1991 collapse of Rough Trade further derailed the group's momentum, and 1992's Tracksuit Vendetta -- recorded as simply Holy Joy -- quickly disappeared from sight. After a final single, "It's a Lovebite City," the group disbanded in 1993. Brown later became a freelance journalist, and in 1995 he and Holy Joy drummer Bill Lewington formed the band Superdrug.
In 2002, Johny Brown re-formed Band of Holy Joy and released the album Love Never Fails. The band remained active, recording and touring intermittently throughout the remainder of the decade. A compilation, Leaves That Fall in Spring, appeared in 2007, followed by the full-length studio effort Paramour in 2010. Over the next serval years, Band of Holy Joy enjoyed a rather prolific creative renaissance. 2011's How to Kill a Butterfly arrived after a Greek tour and an appearance at that year's Glastonbury festival and in 2012 the band released The North Is Another Land via German independent record label Moloko Plus. Easy Listening and the Land of Holy Joy arrived in 2014 and 2015, respectively, and in 2017, they launched a trilogy of politically-charged releases that began with the EP, Brutalism Begins at Home. Later that year, the full-length, Funambulist We Love You continued to the series which concluded with the 2019 album, Neon Primitives.