JOANovARC – JOANovARC (2019)

Europe’s first ever all female band to feature on the Xbox computer game ‘Rockband’, JOANovARC are releasing a new album today, simply titled “JOANovARC”.
The ladies presented their debut album ‘Ride Of Your Life’ to critical acclaim in 2016. Now they are back with their second effort, mixed and mastered by Wayne Proctor and recorded at the legendary Rockfield Studio.
Good to see a band with all the members chipping in with songwriting and lyrically they pull no punches covering drug addiction, relationships and the 2011 London riots.

Opener ‘Burning’ which takes as lyrical inspiration the 2011 London riots is a suitably huge riffed and frenetic way to start album number two and one which leaves you in no doubt that there will be no ‘difficult second album syndrome’ here. These girls rock with energy.
As you dig deeper into the next songs you find that JOANovARC’s latest CD is full of variety, a nice balance of Melodic Rockers, Bluesy moments, no-nonsense rock and rollers, a fine ballad, and what the band themselves refer to as ‘Disco Rock.’

‘Waiting For’ throbs and pulses its way through a relationship that is plainly wrong, but crikey, it’s a good old sing-along too.
‘Down By The River’ has more of a classic rock feel than most of them, while on ‘People Coming Up’ there’s a kind of rocking-disco tinge that recalls the work of Night Flight Orchestra, and if the party is over in the lyrics, then the inference here is that you can just do it in a different way these days.

The CD grabs you attention with each song. ‘Take It Out’ ticks the ‘Rock’ box and makes use of the most underused of rock accouterments – the tambourine; then the intense ballad ‘When We were Young’ shows that you can rock on the acoustic and maybe even sports the best solo here.

After their pretty balls out rock debut album, with this second effort “JOANovARC” the band expanded their horizons, a more cross genre listening experience and it’s all the better for that. Both in terms of the topics covered, and the really well-crafted songs, this is a really strong album.
If you’re new to JOANovARC, this new album will result a wonderful discovery plenty of solid songwriting, very impressive vocals, full of variety, power and melody.
Highly Recommended

01 – Burning
02 – Waiting For
03 – Down By The River
04 – People Coming Up
05 – Take It Out
06 – When We Were Young
07 – Try It On
08 – Jane
09 – This Way
10 – Slipping Away
11 – Go Home

Sam Walker – Lead Vocals / Bass
Shelley Walker – Lead Guitar / Backing Vocals
Laura Ozholl – Rhythm Guitar / Vocals
Debbie Wildish – Drums

BUY IT !
www.joanovarc.co.uk/?page_id=3952
.