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Most of the album stays true to a light flavor, and Welcome Joy is a nice, comfortable listen, right up there with "Invitation Songs."
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The Cave Singers' mild, moseying tunes aren't without their minor charms, and they're unfailingly good at conjuring images of wide-open fields and dust-caked lanes, but nobody wants to walk down the same road all the time if they can help it.
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UncutThis time around they've learnt to loosen up slightly, enlisting the help of Amber Webber from Black Mountain and adding a pleasingly West Coast sensibility to what was previously a rather monochromatic Americana mix. [Sep 2009, p.81]
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Emphatic yet rarely overbearing choruses, all delivered in a subtle manner, will always bring me back to the road. The Cave Singers have mastered the art of give and take.
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MojoThey're more likely to be judged on face value, but that shouldn't do them any harm. [Sep 2009, p.95]
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It’s a shame that Quirk’s quirky vibrato is so prominent as it ruins an album that otherwise sits somewhere between untroublesome and mildly enjoyable
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This is a remarkable album in every sense.
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It's just there was the expectation of more, and this has left me a bit cold.
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Mumbly, scratchy-voiced Pete Quirk is more self-assured than on 2007’s Invitation Songs, championing optimism and determination in the face of trouble, powered by sharp folk and country-blues guitars, plus no-frills percussion.
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The Cave Singers, though hobbled by their overly-familiar nature, make sweet, sentimental music. Welcome Joy, despite its rockier bent, is no exception.
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The sparse songs are free of drums, bass, riffs and obvious choruses, and are often pushed along by just two, sometimes three, chords.
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It closes with the sigh of "Bramble," another one of the band’s well-crafted whispers that seems more like a lo-fi sketch than a fully realized song. In isolated moments like this Welcome Joy shines as a companion piece equal to their first release, "Invitation Songs."
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Although the album is undoubtedly a more polished production than is "Invitation Songs," the percussion is obfuscated by a watery and murky mix.
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That lack of propulsion makes Welcome Joy something of a sleepwalker.
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Welcome Joy is the perfect, earthy balance of the grittiest and the sweetest splendors that the Pacific has to offer.