The Daily Spin II

Mt. Joy | Mt. Joy

Welcome back to the Daily Spin. For the uninitiated, this is the series in which I review an album every day of 2025.

As was the case two years ago, my favorite song from each album can be found at the playlist linked here.

Album: Mt. Joy (2018)

Artist: Mt. Joy

Link:

As a foil to what I reviewed yesterday, I wanted to look at an album from an artist that went the opposite direction - instead of looking towards a darker, deeper sound, Mt. Joy chose to build towards the light and I think it was a tremendous call, really.

Few bands can make this sort of peppy indie folk really work well - it’s a genre predisposed to a sentiment not necessarily negative, but one that doesn’t leave a great deal of room for the higher side of life - to successfully pull off a happy folk album is not unlike what Mac Miller did, pivoting from braggadocio into introspection while maintaining that slick hip-hop production.

And yet, I sit here and listen, and it sure feels like Mt. Joy did it with their self-titled - full of those beautiful little odes to living and loving and surviving, energetic to the last breath. Some of the typical issues strike true here - there’s nothing revolutionary about this album, even when I’m stretching to find something, but that’s not a horrible thing when it works so well.

Rating: 8/10

Best Tracks: Sheep

Worst Tracks: Sado