The Overjoyed – The Overjoyed

As John Lydon‘s professional contrarian roadshow slouches around the provinces, and some of punk’s original gangsters scrabble awkwardly to reach for the bottom of the barrel, hoping to find some dregs of relevance there, it’s timely to remember that the first big bang of punk was a force for change. It was a licence to do away with the established methodologies and perceived wisdom of the cultural industries. And yet here we are, clinging on to echoes of that explosion, reliving the adolescent thrill of those heady days by lurching unsteadily downhill in a punk tin bath. Barely a day goes by without two ‘punker than you’ factions debating which of them is more authentic on social media; punk now has tiresome rules and conventions; the very structures it was born to dismantle.

We’ve moved on. The landscape has changed. The cultural battlefield is no longer the clubs with sticky carpets, the cellar record shops and the national media. It’s bedrooms and tiny studios. It’s internet radio and podcasts, the independent festivals with ‘Introducing’ stages. It’s international. It’s global, it’s local, it’s European…

Plastic Bertrand was a laugh, though, wasn’t he? The cartoon Belgian whose stream-of-consciousness French nonsense became a lazy reference point for continental European punk. This is a stereotype bands such as Die Toten Hosen have laboured heroically for decades to destroy. But that suspicion remains. It shouldn’t. Here’s why. The Overjoyed, from Athens, are everything you always wanted from that first wave, with a massive side order of artistic relevance. This self-titled album – their third – is a masterclass. The songs are fantastic, hooky mini-masterpieces, the production sounds brilliant and there’s an intensity in this work that some of our more venerated purveyors of punk rock seem to have lost.

The Overjoyed channel good things. If you had told me that opener Can’t Write Music was co-written by Iron Maiden‘s Steve Harris, I would have believed you. Tuneful rock riffing overlays a frantic growling bass. But this is not derivative. This is a masterful and exuberant deployment of the band’s influences, illustrating perhaps the band’s new collaborative approach to the writing process. It’s not all hi-octane melodic punk. Party Eyes has a grinding Killing Joke/ Foo Fighters vibe before switching into an up-tempo refrain of “you could be my getaway, but I just feel like shit today …” Joy Vampire puts that growling, chorused bass to the fore, creating a careering earworm of a song. Already Late is an extended pop-punk classic that Green Day would be proud to have authored. There’s a hefty slab of dub on display as the album closes with the mighty Final Lap. Despite the smorgasbord of musical reference points, this remains a very individual and truthful document from a relentlessly hard-working band. Strong, sweet flavours but light on cheese. Tasty. Best track? That’s a toughie and it might seem invidious to select one. If I had, it would be the mighty Spark, which ticks all the pop punk boxes and will surely continue to be a favourite. Bonus points too for referencing two Buzzcocks lyrics.

The band have backed themselves to produce this album, name-checking only engineer/mixer Marios Adamopoulos as their studio partner. The PR says ‘The Overjoyed‘s new album is loud, honest, vulnerable, and full of conviction‘. I have no argument with that. Every track on this superb piece of work is first class.

Like Italy’s Bee Bee Sea, whom we reviewed recently, and on the evidence of the great acts popping up at festivals like Rebellion, The Overjoyed joyously underline that you dismiss non-Anglo-American punk at your peril.  The band is named well. There’s an upbeat energy radiating from every particle of this album. It’s the type of album where on the first listen, each track is your new favourite. Enjoy The Overjoyed. Life’s good for them. Ça plane pour moi, aussi.

The Overjoyed by The Overjoyed is out now and can be streamed here.