Joviale first plotted their
Ghostly International album debut as a surrealist whodunit play. The North Londoner went as far as assigning roles for their collaborators as the set was knocked into shape.
Mount Crystal begins with
Joviale singing "Careful not to slip and fall/You are not invincible" with a sense of teasing insincerity, but no murderous intent or action can be discerned in what transpires. Chiefly produced by
Joviale,
John Carroll Kirby, and
Jkarri,
Mount Crystal has all the spirited playfulness of the two EPs
Joviale recorded with
Bullion, though the protagonist here processes a greater amount of heartache, as signaled by the dissolved romance illustrated in track two, the suitably crisp ballad "Snow." Further surrounded by old mates such as
Laura Groves and
Fabiana Palladino (two of many lively background vocalists) and
Ben Reed (supplying melodic basslines), and fairly high-profile new collaborators like
Carter Lang,
Will Miller, and
Sam Wilkes (all of whom are on one track each),
Joviale makes the best of their circumstances with this natural synthesis of left-field pop and R&B. A particularly vivid sequence runs from "Hark!," a swirling compound of dubwise house and thorny post-punk, through "Moonshine," a slinking and bewitching number seasoned with a dash of
Sade's "The Sweetest Taboo." Between those two highlights are the tense "Foul Play," replete with humorously quarrelsome dialogue, and the radiant "Let Me Down," a forthright plea and the closest the LP gets to out-and-out pop. The brightest melodies of all tend to arrive in tandem with
Kirby's nimble, pearlescent keyboards, as on later highlight "Blu," a guardedly joyous view of a rekindled relationship, and on the closing "Wishing," a song of longing and disappointment that ends on an optimistic note. No matter the level of distress,
Joviale's voice remains enchanting and soft-hued. Earlier on, at their absolute lowest, they sing of yearning for vanishment, but it seems they have found it better to let it all out in the company of sympathetic friends. ~ Andy Kellman
