Wide Awake by Joy Kills Sorrow

Joy Kills Sorrow has always had a knack for writing and performing intimate songs. Now the Boston-based string band is emphasizing their epic side, too, on Wide Awake, the new EP out June 4. The seven-song collection serves as a milepost in the blossoming career of a group the Los Angeles Daily News praised as “virtuoso art folkies who understand the value of being just folks.” Wide Awake features six riveting new original songs that showcase singer Emma Beaton’s soulful, enveloping voice on lush acoustic arrangements fleshed out by Matt Arcara on guitar, Wes Corbett on banjo, Jacob Jolliff on mandolin and Zoe Guigueno on bass. The EP also includes a cover of the Postal Service’s 2003 electro-pop single “Such Great Heights,” which Joy Kills Sorrow has been performing in concert for a while after learning the song during a residency at the Lizard Lounge in Boston. Wide Awake, which follows the full-length albums Darkness Sure Becomes This City in 2010 and This Unknown Science in 2011, is also a chance to introduce listeners to Guigueno, who joined the band last fall. Together, the band members are beginning a new chapter for Joy Kills Sorrow as part of a story that continues to unfold. “It’s a little bit of a new direction for us,” Arcara says. “We’re excited about where it’s going.”

joykillssorrow.com