Hiss Golden Messenger

Jump for Joy, the new record from Hiss Golden Messenger out August 25, 2023, finds songwriter M.C. Taylor facing the unknown. “I knew that I wanted this record to be full of joy,” he says, “because if we’re standing at some kind of finish line of human civilization—and I’m not saying that we are, but some days it sure feels that way—then I want to go out dancing. That’s what I wanted Jump for Joy to feel like: Dancing at the end of time. Laughing in the face of catastrophe.” Jump for Joy was composed in the brief snatches of time Taylor found in 2022, a year in which Hiss Golden Messenger was on the road more or less constantly. The album captures the dance of a Hiss Golden Messenger live show in part because Taylor was riding a wave of energy that necessitated a different outlet than 2021’s Quietly Blowing It, which was written and arranged in the sanctuary of his 8’ x 10’ home studio before recording with a Hiss band that’d been forced to stop touring. Jump for Joy finds Taylor and guitarist Chris Boerner, bassist Alex Bingham, drummer Nick Falk, and keys player Sam Fribush in an altogether different mood. Back on the road and in high spirits, Hiss decamped to Sonic Ranch, 40 miles outside of El Paso, Texas, where they lived and recorded for two weeks, playing frisbee or riding the studio four-wheeler when they weren’t in the studio. The result is an album that feels big and fresh, no less personal but consciously uplifting, like being in a room full of long-separated friends sharing stories and good news after a long struggle. “Shinbone” begins with Taylor singing, “Woke up this morning, my God, I felt happy—what a strange sensation” over a killer synth hook; written by Taylor after abruptly snapping out of a prolonged bout of depression, it moves quickly from the relief of surfacing to pondering one of the questions at the heart of Jump for Joy: “If you take the big gamble and lose it all, can you survive with whatever’s left?” When Taylor sings, “Guess what?…