It’s always an exciting and anxiety-inducing moment when friends get together – when it goes well it’s a beautiful thing, but what about when it doesn’t, especially when you’re the one who has to tell them?
So you can imagine our state of mind on the arrival of ‘Radical Love’, which sees two long-term friends of Joyzine, Gabi Garbutt and Jemma Freeman (of The Cosmic Something), both of whom played our 20th anniversary shows a couple of years back, join forces both musically (with Jemma adding guitar, synth and vocal harmonies) and for the video, directed by Freeman.
But of course, we needn’t have worried. ‘Radical Love’ is a bright, shimmering slice of optimistic, idealistic pop loveliness that speaks to the bravery of facing the world with love. Not the blind sort that overwhelms both our senses and our sense as teenagers, but one “like slanted light revealing all that’s broken” with “the mind of a fox and the heart of a dove” that understands that we all exist in context, and the only way we can start to mend the anger and division festering in our world is through compassion.
“I’ve been hugely energised by reading the work of Martin Luther King, and his belief in the transformative power of love,” explains Garbutt, “and this song draws all these themes together, to explore how a radical love is urgently needed to face a world falling apart with humanitarian crisis and climate crisis.“
With its soothing synth swirls, gently pulsing rhythm section, soaring chorus and a rare but welcome inclusion of axolotls in the lyrics, this is definitely a track to have on standby the next time you’re feeling the urge to rage-post on your socials.
‘Radical Love’ is out now on INH Records – download available on Bandcamp
Gabi Garbutt plays a launch show for the single at The Betsey Trotwood in London on 12th March.
Gabi Garbutt: Facebook / Instagram / Bandcamp
Review by Paul Maps
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