After a busy summer of live shows, including sets at Robert Smith’s Meltdown Festival, and main stage appearances at Reading & Leeds Festivals, The Joy Formidable are currently trekking their way across the US and Canada in support of Foo Fighters, armed with an arsenal of new material from forthcoming album AAARTH. The latest single to be lifted from it, The Better Me, premiered last night on Jack Saunders’ Indie Show on Radio 1.
With recent singles Dance of The Lotus and The Wrong Side already riding a wave of media support, from The Guardian to Radio 1, AAARTH is proving itself to be an album packed with inventive and emotive rallying cries. The Better Me is no exception, as lead singer and guitarist Ritzy Bryan explains; “The Better Me is a song about self-acceptance, living with your mistakes and appreciating how we all make up the whole and have something different to offer. A song of thanks to a loved one and a decision to love oneself.”
Filmed in Las Vegas – walking through the deserted backstreets in the early evening – the song’s bittersweet themes of being aware of your failings but accepting and defiant, are captured perfectly by the backdrop of a city such as this one. Put together by Boston-based creative studio TRLLM, it aims to capture feelings of loneliness as well as hopefulness. They comment; “We knew we wanted to do something simple & centred around Ritzy’s performance because it’s a very personal song. There’s also this natural defiance in walking forward, pushing forward through these deserted streets in a lonely corner of Las Vegas.”
AAARTH is released on September 28th on CD, download and LP, as well as an extremely limited boxset, Indie retail exclusive vinyl, and Rough Trade exclusive vinyl, which will be supported by in-stores at Cardiff, Nottingham, Bristol and London East.
Live Dates:
Sept 28th – Spillers Records in-store, Cardiff
Sept 29th – Rough Trade in-store, Nottingham
Sept 30th – Rough Trade in-store, Bristol
Oct 1st – Rough Trade in-store, London East
“AAARTH” Track Listing:
1. Y Bluen Eira
2. The Wrong Side
3. Go Loving
4. Cicada (Land on Your Back)
5. All in All
6. What For
7. The Better Me
8. Absence
9. Dance of the Lotus
10. You Can’t Give Me
11. Caught on a Breeze
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