Words and photos by: Ryan Hill
The night for Joy Crookes’ intimate show was set on a rainy Wednesday at Bristol venue Loco Klub, a perfect venue to encapsulate the intimate feeling of the sold-out show ahead.
Families, couples and friends all gathered to watch the first play through of Joy Crookes’ new and now released sophomore album Juniper, her second released album after her 2021 Mercury Prize nominated album Skin. After enough time of eagerly waiting, the accompanying 2 band members, followed by Joy Crookes herself, made their way on the stage, and after the crowd finished cheering, the show began.
Brave, the first song played, was a bold beginning to the set and a great introduction to this new body of work. With a dreamy vocal sample and some work on the keys and bass from the band, Joy Crookes then came in with her iconic singing voice, which everyone knows and loves. After a couple of songs, Joy introduced her new album and thanked everyone for coming along to hear it.
She proceeded to play new tunes like Perfect Crime, Mathematics and House With a Pool. Joy was talking to the crowd throughout the set in between playing through the album, making jokes while introducing new songs and handing a set list to a young girl at the front of the crowd and saying that she felt relaxed when she saw her in the crowd watching, which was such a sweet moment.
A tender moment came before she played Forever, an emotional beat from the new album, which she dedicated to those in Palestine and showing love to those experiencing the worst of times right now. This really felt like an intimate performance, and a real connection was made between artist and audience.
As the show was getting to the last few songs, Joy Crookes played her biggest song, Feet Don’t Fail Me Now, with 146 million streams. This is the song that she is most known for, which was released and featured on her first album, Skin. Joy joked to the crowd, asking them, “You guys know this one?” as everyone cheered from the recognition of the bassline alone. After being played as the penultimate song, Joy Crookes performed her last song, said her goodbyes and left the crowd after a heartfelt and beautiful introduction to her new album. As the crowd exited, you could hear everyone talking about how amazing a performance it was that they just watched as they stepped back out into the continuing rain of the evening.
Juniper is out now, featuring singles such as I Know You’d Kill, Carmen and Somebody To You.