The Joy Formidable - Wolf's Law

Wolf's Law sounds epic right the way through. From its fantastic opener to its six-minute numbers, it has a soundscape of grand proportions and, following on from their debut album The Big Roar, it shows that indie music can be different from the mainstream yet sound mammoth-like at the same time.

Ritzy Bryan's voice echoes through a wall of panoramic, gargantuan sound and yet she delivers a softness on 'Silent Treatment' which conveys a delicate feeling and resonates, as does most of the record. Track like 'Maw Maw Song' feautre guitar solos which sound too insane to not be electronics. This band have such an expansive sound and have all the melodic mannerisms of a stadium rock outfit. This doesn't feel like the average indie band throwing a record out there as just another piece of work, it feels like a band coming to terms with the fact that their music has grandeur in the best sense.

'Tendons' sounds like it could have been written by Bat For Lashes, but has all the makings of a Hole song with its thick guitar lines and unrepressed rhythms which hammer home. The same can be said for 'Forest Serenade', a thumping, guilt-free track which could easily be a single. There's a real manic spirit about much of the record and, even if some tracks are verging on the berserk, like the shortest song on the album 'Little Blimp', it seems to indicate the band are just having a good time - and no one can begrudge them of that.

There's so much texture to what is essentially a guitar-driven indie-rock album. It simply feels like there's much more here, more depth and more imagination flowing from every cavity. On 'Cholla', Bryan seems to examine the band itself and ponders: "Where are we going?" Well, if there's any justice The Joy Formidable will gain an even larger audience than they currently hold. Wolf's Law shows music that's experimental and different can and should go hand-in-hand with being mainstream and filling stadiums nationwide.