It took no more than 30 seconds of one song to get me obsessively hooked on Joy Crookes' music. Offering everything from groovy bops to throw on at pres to mellow ballads for late night APs (didn't intent that rhyme but I stand by it), the London-based Bangladeshi-Irish singer has established her distinct style with some melting pot of jazz, soul, pop and R&B --- and a true originality that makes her one to watch as her music career takes off. Her voice is soulful and sultry; her lyrics are honest with a fun bit of cheek.
She’s drawn comparisons to other music icons like Amy Winehouse and Lauryn Hill, but Crookes admits that she’s iffy about being “boxed” in by such comparisons, flattering as they are, saying --- “I just want to do my own thing.” Both through her writing and interviews, she presents herself as a fearless and authentic young artist, empowered in her womanhood and cultural foundations.
(As a fun aside: the singer says that she lives by the motto “keep Joy happy to avoid irony”. Brilliant.)
She first found success through song covers that she uploaded to YouTube as a young teen. Since then, she’s released three EPs and a few singles in between, all attracting her due industry recognition. A debut album is expected any day now, so in anticipation I want to take a look at some of the standouts of her discography to date.
Let's start with her first 2017 EP Influence, which includes her best known song to date Mother May I Sleep With Danger?. Using drum brushing and catchy guitar riffs playing on the odd beat, the song captures the jazzier angle of Crookes' style at its best. I love how she sprinkles all kinds of little instrument cameos throughout – the subdued strings, the xylophone chimes, there are so many to listen for. Above all, though, it’s of course her voice that really drives this song home.
Power is another unforgettable track from her debut EP, and by far her most provocative – a ‘cry of power’-style feminist anthem sung with cool confidence. About its origins, Crookes once said: “It came from Trump being elected. It came from watching the women in my family experience the things that they have.” Her raspy vocals are accompanied by minimal drums and strings, setting the beat aside when necessary to give an iconic lyric its limelight --- among the best: “You’re a man on a mission / but you seem to forget / you came here through a woman / show some fucking respect.” Images of female solidarity define the song’s music video, in which the singer’s mother and grandmother appear by her side.
Her following release Reminiscence arrived at the beginning of 2019. The EP’s title choice reflects the idea of needing to look back and accept the past in order to move forward. It features my favourite of hers, Two Nights --- a bouncy and playful song with which I find it impossible to sit still. The lyrics follow the singer from past to present, first singing about the ‘wastemen’ she’s dated and how she realized the need to "pack your pride and shelve your libido". In her own words: “That’s self-care, it’s not even about relationships, it’s just like stop shagging for once!” (Cheers.) The chorus and second verse then have her in the present day, facing the scary giddiness of a new love once again. Overall it’s just a fun, bubbly ode to moving on from past decisions, and she delivers with such a sweet hum in her voice.
Also from this EP (though released as a single prior), the singer goes alone with her acoustic guitar in Don’t Let Me Down – a stripped-back, bittersweet love song about a doomed relationship.
Meanwhile, Man’s World finds her reflecting on independence and self-sufficiency, a sharp scoff at the societal pressure to constantly be with someone else (“I ain’t got no lover / I ain’t got no time / Don’t need no mister to tell me what, when and why”). She ends the song with an Eartha Kitt sample in which Kitt brilliantly cackles during an interview: “A man comes into my life and I have to compromise? Stupid!” (I smile big every time.)
Crookes' stunning single London Mine came out later in 2019, a love song to her home city and the melting pot of people who make it what it is. “The song celebrates the invisible people and how London belongs to no one but everyone,” she's described. London Mine was later included on her most recent third EP, Perception, which also features some of her catchiest grooves like No Hands and Hurts.
She showed off a new side of her talent with her self-produced 2019 medley Yah / Element, in which she blends the two iconic Kendrick Lamar hits --- as always tying them together with her distinctive jazzy spin.
2020 has seen the release of one single so far: Anyone But Me, in which she sings more candidly than ever about her struggles with depression and perfectly conveys the desperate want to be outside of your own body during those darkest times.
With every release she shows a new depth of expression --- both as an exploring artist and as a young woman just experiencing the same questions and answers (and then questions again) as the rest of us. Now we just await the album --- and given the preview she’s posted, we're in for something good.
In the meantime, happy listening!
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