Joywave's Trip Should Be Cancelled

If you've ever had the misfortune of sitting on a bar stool listening to some four sheets to the wind dude discuss his life philosophies with you then Joywave's "It's A Trip" represents the migraine you never asked for. Musically this New York foursome has an ingratiating playing style that gets under your skin little by little until there's nowhere to run or hide. The opening line of verse one alludes to "creepy little sneaky foreign places". This song has an established creepiness going for it as if it had been plucked from the soundtrack of a low budget film, maybe for a cheesy spaghetti western. Kudos to Sean Donnelly for ladling on enough steamy bass for everyone to share. Beyond that though "It's A Trip" isn't meant for greatness by any stretch. It's way too slow and plodding to capture anyone's attention for too long. To add to that the chorus nags about the human desire to want which is spelled out in four different yet equally annoying sentences. First we get "When you've gotten what you want (desire satisfied)". Then it's onto "There's nothing left to want (I got too greedy so now that I've consumed it all what's left?). Next we have "You don't know what you want (I'm going through an existential crisis)". Finally we come to "Just tell me what to want (Please don't force me to have to make an actual adult decision)". Too much waffling and not enough decisiveness doesn't an engaging rock song make. No amount of Benjamin Bailey's keyboards can change that. What we're getting is a boring person trying to use mood enhancer to cover up the fact that the guy next to him on the bar stool is bound to run away screaming, not because the philosopher's a physical threat but because this poor guy's losing daylight to this word barfing mouth breather. If there's a point that "It's A Trip" is trying to make, it's totally lost on me. I hope the guy renting out the studio got value for his money because otherwise he could have gotten more bang for his buck making a down payment on good blow. "It's A Trip" doesn't merit racking up frequent listener miles.