Mount Crystal by Joviale

Joviale makes music that feels like a show; drama lies in the tension between pop impulse and something more cerebral and sensorial. A multidisciplinary artist from North London, they came up as a theater kid and now harness their prismatic creative expression across mediums, fusing components of visual art, performance, and recording into a singular world. In 2021, following their Hurricane Belle EP, which caught the attention of Pitchfork and Crack Magazine, they quietly receded from view in an effort to evolve and hone their skills as a writer and producer. In 2025, out from behind the curtains comes Mount Crystal, their full-length debut on Ghostly International, an ascendant conceptual album that reintroduces Joviale’s point of view. Songs are electric and soulful, dashed with jazzy experimentation, rhythmic rock, and vibrant sound design, all realized alongside co-producers John Carroll Kirby and Jkarri and a cast of collaborators, including Sam Wilkes, Carter Lang, and Will Miller, among others. Initially imagined as a play, Mount Crystal brims and bursts with life — peril, humor, and the buzz of the human spirit — conjuring a metaphysical climb that transcends the audio format. With plans to further manifest the vision as a live set and more, Joviale sets the course:

“Mount Crystal's lore is driven by the embodiment of desire, danger, and desperation. A mirrored dimension in a distant reality where nothing is left unsaid. These chapters crave to tear apart the illusion of pleasure by alchemising the unrelenting pain I’ve experienced in my efforts to love, deny, and embrace the sweetest melodies with the sweetest friends.”

Inspired by the comedic musical mastery of Prince’s 1986 film Under the Cherry Moon and the offbeat surrealism of David Lynch’s Twin Peaks, Joviale first saw Mount Crystal as a murder mystery, hypothetically casting each collaborator as a character in the story. Co-producer John Carroll Kirby (Steve Lacy, Frank Ocean, Solange, Kacey Musgraves) became the American cop investigator tracking a series of murders in a strange British hotel. Joviale and contributors Fabiana Palladino and Laura Groves are entertainers at the hotel; co-producer Joshua Gaskin-Brown, aka Jkarri (PinkPantheress, Nia Archives, Bel Cobain, Natanya), is the resident handyman always at work in the periphery, and so on. The loose framework immediately set a relaxed, anything-goes mentality to recording sessions spread over various makeshift studio set-ups, including Joviale’s living room during a month-long stay in Barcelona. “We all have one thing in common, which is that we love to jam as musicians and love to have a stupid time and we will work from each other's houses,” says Joviale. “In this trio with John and Joshua, I felt very much in the lead; they'd be like, ‘we get it,’ and that's because we were able to jam through it.”

Joviale’s personality reverberates across Mount Crystal’s densely detailed world. They speak with swagger and sing skyward, cutting through rubbery basslines and angular strums, synthesized horns and harps, unruly beats, and unusual sound bites. The antithesis of background music, these songs leap from headphones much like an engrossing movie makes itself known on screen. Joviale’s sonic references span Sade, Kate Bush, Janet Jackson, Todd Rundgren, ‘60s girls groups, Japanese composers, and “the freaky guys and girls and the divas of the ‘80s…glamorous rock’n’roll, Rick James, Prince, Quincy.” Artists who prioritized playful ambition and bravado.

While set up as fictional abstractions, songs also reflect Joviale’s lived-in experiences: broken-hearted letdowns, realizations, and the search for clarity and truth. Sequencing arcs upward and back down as if scaling its namesake. Lyrics detail dynamics between the self and others. On the lightly psychedelic intro “The Mountain,” Joviale cautions, “careful not to slip and fall you are not invincible.” “Snow” finds them surrounded by glistening synth, bass, and horn-like pulses, likening faded love to a cold winter’s day. Super-charged centerpiece “HARK!” crosses sinister funk with serene majesty. “Not even them mountains can stop you! Not even them angels can help you!” Joviale shouts into the horizon as records scratch, guitars solo, and voices shriek and laugh. The group leaned into an evil groove during its recording, where Michael Jackson’s Thriller was a studio playlist staple. Joviale says they’ve always expected collaborators to rein them back in, but here, “John was kind of egging it on.”

The album’s altitude shifts at “Foul Play,” which unravels into a couple’s fight as a party escalates downstairs; the melodrama heightens over samples of a revving chainsaw, among other absurdities. The siren-like bells carry over into the bounce of “Let Me Down,” where Joviale jokingly riffed off the idea of embodying an opera diva for a minute, allowing themself an uncharacteristic rush of jealousy, pride, and anger.

“Moonshine” came together over several jams; Joviale was challenged to channel the classic Prince muse a la Sheila E., Vanity, and Chaka Khan, a notion in contrast to their self-described “giving art teacher’” disposition. They surfaced several lines on the spot (like “I’m easy breezy / Sweeter than a kiwi” while eating an actual kiwi). The track builds to rhythmic bliss with James Mollison of Ezra Collective on saxophone. Late album comedown “Blu!” was their first experience “writing in communion with someone.” Jkarri’s sweet-toned signatures meld with Joviale’s heady cadence as Kirby holds down the keys.

Beyond metaphorical mountains and murder mysteries, Joviale’s debut album is a statement of artistic identity and purpose. A work that speaks to patience and collaborative ethos, surrendering oneself to music-making, and letting the process lead you somewhere new. “Disappear” begins a warm closing scene, the resolution after a season of wild experimentation; Mount Crystal reveals itself as the pop record it’s been reaching for. “We have come a long way,” Joviale sings on the hand-clapped “Wishing” — a second voice responds, “I go where I need to go” — and in that moment, in accord with their crew, Joviale confirms acceptance and the lesson learned, that life keeps going.