Ahead of their forthcoming LP, ‘Perfect Gray’, New Jersey slowcore duo, Joyer, have shared their final release from the album. Shane Sullivan, one half of the band, explained “’Worst Thing' deals with personal anxiety and the way I tend to build certain situations and fears up in my mind to feel way more significant than they actually are. More specifically this song is about a health scare I had a little while back that ended up being nothing at all but definitely made me realize how I tend to make myself feel a lot worse about things than I need to.”

The jangling, guitar-heavy track, with its many harmonic layers, dissonant drums and soft vocals, creates a haunting sound that perfectly illustrates Shane’s experience with anxiety. Deeply emotional lyrics such as “Convince myself that the worst things might be real this time” and “I am the worst thing that ever happened to me” cut deep, providing a relatable sense of the mental turmoil anxious thoughts cause. The addition of synth to the instrumental section of the song, however, fills the song with a new energy, renewing the repetitive melody with a more hopeful sound – perhaps the light at the end of Shane’s tunnel.

Both coming from a film background, the brother duo take inspiration from directors Tsai Ming-Liang and Andrei Tarkovsky, rather than just from other musicians. Their songs are bleak, unadorned and emphasize bizarre, ominous imagery, with lyrics that mix themes of environmental catastrophe, industrial decay, and internal struggle with an effort to stay positive and find contentment in personal meaning.

If Joyer’s moody, low tempo indie is a bit of you, look out for the release of their fourth album, ‘Perfect Gray,’ on the 24th September. “Worst Thing “is out now. The quirky music video of the track, which features a reversed clip of a thief being chased, is also worth a watch.

Leanna Thomson