Although they have drawn a line under their past and are making a new start, the four still have the benefit of their experience, techniques and studio recording skills. And with the many gigs they have played over the years, they are perfectly at home on stage. Griefjoy have been together since they were very young, forming unbreakable bonds. Now they have recovered their creative appetites. Griefjoy. They decided this was the best name to define a combination of two emotions you might think it impossible to experience simultaneously - until you listen to their music and the forty minutes of their first album. The record reconciles light and darkness, rock intensity and heady electro, smoke rings and right angles - all with equal success. It is an introduction to Griefjoy, aka the ice burn effect. They began to explore music when they met, at a very early age. Then one day, they saw the light in rock. That devastating earthquake swept away everything in its path and guided them towards a perfect group chemistry. And never left them. The rock shock sealed their four-way partnership and they set out on their quest for the perfect tune as a group. 2013. Drawing on their various influences (rock, jazz, pop, electro, hip-hop, original soundtracks, etc.), Griefjoy have given us a first album of ten blinding songs. Although the first revelation that led them away from a more classic style was Radiohead’s “Street Spirit”, you will find no replications of Thom Yorke’s band here. Guillaume’s voice is clear and Griefjoy’s power rock is never pretentious or pompous, just amazingly mature for a group whose average age is 22. “Touch Ground” sums up the hallowed unity that is Griefjoy’s goal: a dance beat, heady backing vocals and a tune that will keep you awake at night.
Electro sometimes gains the upper hand - for instance, on “Insane” and its ultimate plunge into an acid rain of synth, or “People Screwed Up”, with its machine rollercoaster. Pop also takes a bow on the unstoppable “Kids Turn Around” and the soothing “Hold the Tides”. And finally, “Crimson Rose” brings together every shade on Griefjoy’s sound palette. The music conceived on Guillaume’s piano is influenced by ambient and movie soundtracks. His keyboards add a solemnity to the band’s inspired rock, while the guitar fires lightning bolts from the sky, the beats build towering walls, and floods of synthesizer raise superb sonic cathedrals. The home-recorded songs were fine-tuned by producer Stéphane “Alf” Briat (Air, Phoenix, Etienne de Crécy, Jackson & his Computer Band, etc.), who enhanced their volume and amplitude. Over the musical melancholy float words that dreams are made on. Griefjoy are an unusual band. They have always worked with Sylvain Autran, a virtual fifth shadow member who writes all their English lyrics. Contemplative white dreams go hand in hand with dark tides of sensation blending futuristic poetry and nostalgia, memories and wild visions: the infinite range of human emotion unfolds there, shaped by every possible concord and discord. Griefjoy are experimental and classic rockers, energy-filled and soothing, urban and terribly human. They are more than willing to risk striking contrasts and put on high-wire acts with no safety net. Their music is ambitious like M83’s, intellectual like Radiohead’s, efficient like Metronomy’s, curious like PVT’s and solar like Caribou’s. The band reveal soaring aspirations, but avoid the pitfall of affectation.Familiar in its influences, yet still unknown and surprising: this is the world of Griefjoy.
FEEL
Griefjoy Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Deep in a vast forest
A knot in a wide net
Stuck in the mist
Floating in the air
A mist that keeps me apart
Like a water drop
Into the widest lake
I find myself
Shouting in despair
None of my words reach the air
I feel
I feel
I feel
I feel
I feel
I feel
alone
I feel
I feel
I feel
I feel
I feel
I feel
alone
I look to the sky
On every cold night
And just stare at the stars
Hoping to find
Something else up there
To avoid my loneliness
I feel
I feel
I feel
I feel
I feel
I feel
alone
I feel
I feel
I feel
I feel
I feel
I feel
alone
How long ‘til someone comes around
Someone to make me feel alive
The lyrics of Griefjoy’s song “Feel” depict a sense of isolation and loneliness that the singer is experiencing. The singer finds themselves in a vast forest, feeling stuck in a mist that keeps them apart. As the mist is symbolic of uncertainty and confusion, this could represent the singer feeling lost and anxious about their future. The singer is shouting in despair, but none of their words are reaching the air, indicating feelings of helplessness.
As they look up to the sky on cold nights and stare at the stars, they hope to find something that will help them avoid their loneliness. The singer repeatedly vocalizes that they feel alone, emphasizing their emotional distress. The last two lines show the singer’s yearning for human connection, asking how long it will be until “someone comes around” to make them feel alive.
Overall, the song’s meaning lies in its powerful depiction of the singer’s emotional state, highlighting the importance of human connection in times of difficulty.
Line by Line Meaning
I rest on the land
I am on solid ground, physically stationary
Deep in a vast forest
I am lost in a large, expansive woodland area
A knot in a wide net
I feel trapped in a complicated and extensive situation
Stuck in the mist
I am confined in a foggy place
Floating in the air
I feel weightless and without direction
A mist that keeps me apart
The fog isolates and divides me from things around me
Like a water drop
Similar to a droplet of water
Just fallen from the top(s)
Recently dropped from above
Into the widest lake
Into a vast body of water
I find myself
I discover my presence in this environment
Shouting in despair
Screaming in agony and pain
None of my words reach the air
My cries go unheard or unnoticed
I feel alone
I am lonely and without companionship
I look to the sky
I gaze upward into the heavens
On every cold night
During each nighttime when it feels chilly
And just stare at the stars
Merely contemplating the shining celestial bodies
Hoping to find
Wishing to discover
Something else up there
Anything else in the sky
To avoid my loneliness
To escape the feeling of being alone
How long ‘til someone comes around
How much time until another person appears
Someone to make me feel alive
A person who will bring me back to life and out of this despair
Contributed by Matthew W. Suggest a correction in the comments below.