Considering the journey, both sonically and geographically that Joe Mayk has been on, it comes as no surprise that his music stands out. At its core his music rubs shoulders with Americana and Indie Rock, but there is so much more going on as well. In his latest release, Lost Paradise, there is an infectious groove that only comes from understanding how pop music works, it captures rock anthemic qualities without picking up any of its cliches, it even skirts through the commercial end of blues rock, flirts with a celebratory latin vibe and is held together with a natural soulfulness and an unbridled energy. That’s a lot to fit in to one song but he manages it.
It’s easy to suggest that you are going to write a song with so many different generic ideas and disparate styles, but actually doing so is a whole different challenge. But with Lost Paradise, Joe Mayk does just that. He cleverly dovetails the various sounds together, smooths things over and makes it all work. Nothing feels out of place or awkward, everything just runs in harmony like a well oiled sonic machine and that takes no small amount of skill.
[…] I have always used a few very obvious handles to try to convey Joe Mayk’s sound -Americana, alt-rock, alt-country, indie – you know the usual shorthand of the lazy […]