Album artwork for Motherhood by No Joy

First No Joy LP since 2015’s More Faithful. No Joy’s relentless sonic permutations are evidence of frontperson and principal songwriter Jasamine White-Gluz’s insatiable desire to grow.

For No Joy’s first full length in five years, White-Gluz took what she learned from synthesis, reincorporated guitars, and produced an album that is not a departure from No Joy’s early shoegaze, but a stylistically omnivorous expansion that ekes into trip hop, trance and nu-metal. Motherhood is the culmination of years composing outside of her comfort zone, and a return to DIY recording with a leveled-up expertise in production. Throughout the record there are loving nostalgic nods to the records White-Gluz adored on their release twenty years ago - Massive Attack, Sneaker Pimps, No Doubt.

White-Gluz hadn’t read Sheila Heti’s Motherhood when she wrote and titled this record, but when she did, the narrative parallels between the two projects were “like looking into a mirror. Time is critical, and you have to make decisions that are extremely time sensitive and your body doesn’t care,” she explains. “It’s a lot of seeing myself through my mother’s experiences, and the physicalness of a body getting older.” The album also investigates the implications of her parents’ aging on her role as their child.

Heti’s book’s central conceit is an open-ended pondering of whether dedication to writing is more significant than the desire to have children. No Joy doesn’t definitively answer this existential quagmire, either - how could anyone? Instead, Motherhood is a beautifully dense exploration that proves how thoughtful, thorough music can translate into art that is rich, vast and alive.

For fans of Curve, Sneaker Pimps, Primal Scream, Slowdive, Massive Attack, Kate Bush.

No Joy

Motherhood

Joyful Noise Recordings
Album artwork for Motherhood by No Joy
CD

$15.99

Released 08/21/2020Catalog Number

JNR340CD

Learn more
Album artwork for Motherhood by No Joy
LP

$22.99

Neon Violet Vinyl

Released 08/21/2020Catalog Number

JNR340lp-C1

Learn more
No Joy

Motherhood

Joyful Noise Recordings
Album artwork for Motherhood by No Joy
CD

$15.99

Released 08/21/2020Catalog Number

JNR340CD

Learn more
Album artwork for Motherhood by No Joy
LP

$22.99

Neon Violet Vinyl

Released 08/21/2020Catalog Number

JNR340lp-C1

Learn more

First No Joy LP since 2015’s More Faithful. No Joy’s relentless sonic permutations are evidence of frontperson and principal songwriter Jasamine White-Gluz’s insatiable desire to grow.

For No Joy’s first full length in five years, White-Gluz took what she learned from synthesis, reincorporated guitars, and produced an album that is not a departure from No Joy’s early shoegaze, but a stylistically omnivorous expansion that ekes into trip hop, trance and nu-metal. Motherhood is the culmination of years composing outside of her comfort zone, and a return to DIY recording with a leveled-up expertise in production. Throughout the record there are loving nostalgic nods to the records White-Gluz adored on their release twenty years ago - Massive Attack, Sneaker Pimps, No Doubt.

White-Gluz hadn’t read Sheila Heti’s Motherhood when she wrote and titled this record, but when she did, the narrative parallels between the two projects were “like looking into a mirror. Time is critical, and you have to make decisions that are extremely time sensitive and your body doesn’t care,” she explains. “It’s a lot of seeing myself through my mother’s experiences, and the physicalness of a body getting older.” The album also investigates the implications of her parents’ aging on her role as their child.

Heti’s book’s central conceit is an open-ended pondering of whether dedication to writing is more significant than the desire to have children. No Joy doesn’t definitively answer this existential quagmire, either - how could anyone? Instead, Motherhood is a beautifully dense exploration that proves how thoughtful, thorough music can translate into art that is rich, vast and alive.

For fans of Curve, Sneaker Pimps, Primal Scream, Slowdive, Massive Attack, Kate Bush.