Joy Dennis – Music is (Album Review)
Joy Dennis – Music is…
(Release Date: May 4, 2010)
Joy Dennis Records
www.twitter.com/JoyDennisMusic
out of
I honestly love doing reviews for independent and new artist over the established veterans mostly for selfish reasons. New artist don’t come with the same level of baggage that their older wiser peers carry. They also don’t have the marketing machine behind them subtly influencing you to think their crappy songs are better than they really are. I also like the idea of maybe helping somebody discover somebody they might not have heard before. Joy Dennis (according to her bio on her website) is a soulful urban jazzy melodic singer from Jacksonville Florida. Like all soulful urban jazzy melodic singers she started out in the choir and decided to spread her wings musically. 
I don’t know what it is about the church but pastors could start a side hustle as manager for the zillions of budding superstars because they all seem to start from the same place.
Anybody who tries to slip into Billie Holiday’s shoes in any capacity whether it be in a play or just standing next to the words Billie Holiday better be able to sing and thankfully Joy has the goods. 
I don’t like comparing new artist to older artist because it ruins first impressions and does a disservice to both parties so I’ll side step that nonsense and just say if you like singers whose name sounds like Mhrisette Michele or Zill Scott ahem… there you go, your horrible drought of good music is over, you can stop doing your rain dance and fire up the iTunes.
A few months ago I took Brittani Senser to task for her lack of internet presence and reluctantly I have to do the same here. Being on the net is vital in 2010 especially for independent artist, a website isn’t enough, myspace isn’t enough you need to be on it pushing yourself or nobody is ever going to find you outside of your core circle of facebook friends. A few years ago being on the internet was a option today it is the difference between eating and starving for any artist. 
If you want pointers think of the absolute worst artist to ever touch the microphone and google them, the crappier the artist the more internet savvy they seem to be.
What did I think about the album, I think it was good definitely repeat worthy, but not great it stumbled in a few spots. Of course I’m talking strictly production here because Joy did her thing on it, I couldn’t really find fault with her at all. It did feel however like some songs sounded dated, but it wasn’t a deal breaker because that was the sound she was going for. The albums soul is old school, nostalgic and jazzy even, reminding me of a classier time when autotune was a Transformer but I digress, I liked Joy, I really did and I could feel her struggle through her songs which makes me believe her as a singer and as a woman. And I like that about my music. I have a working theory, it is rather crude but bare with me I have yet to see it proven wrong. Women in the music industry have a difficult struggle for acceptance by us the fans. They have to be naked, pretty, sing ridiculously sexist songs, or look like you got out of the mental institution to get noticed today. If you look closely at the women who transcend the rubbish and turn this hobby of theirs into careers they have one of two things going for them. These superstar singers either set trends for their fans, and women want to be them, or these women live life and women can relate to them. Joy Dennis falls into the latter and when you listen to her music you will agree with me she is a superstar. I hope to hear more from her in the future and so should you.
