Track Reviews // Joviale - Ride Away


2nd Single (Blue Flowers, 14th June 2019)

Blue Flowers chanteuse Joviale has dropped her second vividly human and sensual singles in Ride Away. Like her debut track it’s an exercise in exquisite patience that starts in questions and ends in answers, a million miles away from maybes. But the torchlit, snake-hipped flickers of Dreamboat are replaced by an immense depth of pop and folk and Latin whispers drowning all but the kitchen sink. This latest single from the avant-pop Londoner is a tapestry of colours and textures; amber dawns, warm black caverns, smooth brass and sighed blues.

Joviale’s heart-on-her-sleeve vocal is caressed by swooning instrumentation. The purr of each element in the groove evokes smoky Billie Holiday and self-possessed Nina Simone, and the textured fathoms of the production are similar to contemporaries like You Tell Me or labelmates Nilufer Yanya and Westerman.

As with the previous single Joviale wields a deadly knack for finding the deepest groove of emotion in her tune and pursuing it into the hazy dusk of the song’s last notes. As she rides away, borne on a gust of love and a gale of potential, the cooing reassurance of “maybe this is what it means…” as with “I know I’m no dreamboat” vibrate with an undeniable strength; one that won’t be denied much longer.

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