The mysterious paperbag-wearing local character Joyrobber has only gone and put a whole album down. It’s called You Need to Stop Doing This, and after we’ve been so nice to him about all the singles he’s previously released from it, he still refuses to reveal his identity… is it overdue for Joyrobber to take a slice of his own worldly advice?!
I once thought I’d figured out who he is, I even asked him if he was who I think he is, to which he flatly denied, claiming no knowledge of the person I asked him if he was. But still, I remain suspicious. He could be the person I think he is, just pretending not to be the person I think he is, but then, he might not be the person I think he is. Hope you’re following so far, because there’s also the factor that none of it matters, because he’ll not reveal, or that it’s completely irrelevant who he is, and if he is who I think he is, or not.
With that fully cleared up, let’s move swiftly on to the album, shall we?! But just to mention, it’s been going on far too long now, since he sent me the debut single Jeremy Kyle slightly over a year ago. But even though I’m adamant he’s definitely not Jeremy Kyle, and that’s not who I thought he is anyway, being the song seems to not paint Jeremy Kyle in the best light, I enjoyed the comedic, catchy take on the career of…Jeremy Kyle.
It’s all good fun, loud and proud indie-punk-pop goodness, and the themes do not rest on the same cliches as standard songwriting, but you can’t help feeling sorry for the calamitous and unfortunate life of Joyrobber. Over four of the seven songs, he suffers insomnia, didn’t get his dream job, had his car broken into on his birthday, and regretfully crossed the friend barrier with the object of his desire.
If on and on (and on and on), I didn’t want your stupid job anyway, Requiem for my Car Window, and Stay Friends (I’ll permit you to guess which song title goes with which irk, as an interactive section of the review, though this quiz gets no prizes) you should note there’s a fifth tune called Awks, which is an anthology of further mishaps. Perhaps this is the reason for his anonymity, perhaps not, but let’s not dwell on the subject any longer.
For alongside Jeremy, song number five, Graham’s Guitar runs on a different theme, being a homage to, or at the very least an almost paranormal experience when playing a lost friend’s guitar. It’s all clever and tongue-in-cheek stuff, engineered by music legend Jolyon Dixon, and self-produced under the parody title of Sugarpill Productions.
Joyrobber explains the album title were the words he was told eight years ago, “when the professional powers that be discovered that I made music and posted it online in my free time.” Fearing for his livelihood he took all his music down when said employers discovered his music accounts and disapproved of him using his name. With all this in tow, maybe he is Jeremy Kyle?!
I’m not losing sleep over it, because the creative bug sticks, and though they’d successfully crushed any aspirations, Joyrobber returned to his hobby many years later, and hey presto, You Need to Stop Doing This is the result of trudging through his cherish demos that never saw the light of day before, and reworking them.
Glad he did, because this album is good clean fun, name your price, and perhaps should’ve come with a warning that some of these songs you might personally reflect upon, but not especially in a positive light. I feel Joyrobber’s pain, had my car window smashed in too, and an obsession once for a person I crossed that friend barrier with, but I’m a milkman, so insomnia is in the contract!
