Band Of Holy Joy - Fated Beautiful Mistakes (2023) Hi-Res

Early Band Of Holy Joy material existed between the cut-up side of proto-industrial music and proponents of a more romantic musical language

A great leap in polish led to a deal with Rough Trade and several albums which flirted with the mainstream, but when these releases failed to take off as hoped, lost years on smaller labels and self-released projects followed, until the renewed urgency of 2016's Brutalism Begins At Home EP and increasingly majestic albums on which saw Johny Brown's lyricism enter a new phase.

The common thread through the band's four decades of recordings is the foundational warmth and humanity of Brown's words. Their earliest recordings seemed garnered from street-level observations of neighbourhood people and sights. By the time of near-hit "Tactless", their songs - whatever their underlying impulses - had become immediate enough to overcome the mystery of a line like "Do you remember the swan that was shot in the park?"

Over each of their last three albums - Funambulist We Love You, Neon Primitives and Dreams Take Flight - Band Of Holy Joy has bettered itself, and may now have reached their apex, Fated Beautiful Mistakes.

We live in a time of justifiable gloom and awkward uncertainty. So it may appear cavalier to claim this album sounds revelatory in that context, but Band Of Holy Joy's strength rests in their ability to capture a wider societal feeling. One listen to the escapist fantasy of "Our Flighty Season In The Dirty Sun" and its slightly-haunted ending speaks volumes beyond most of what passes for music in 2023. It's just one of many perfect moments on this album