This is Video of the Week from Wales Arts Review. We’ll be showcasing some of the best art in Wales with a new video shared every week. From music to drama and everything in between, videos will not be limited by medium. This week, we take a look at ‘Gotta Feed My Dog’ by The Joy Formidable.
In the second week of our 100 Greatest Welsh Albums of All Time countdown, we take a look at the music video for ‘Gotta Feed My Dog’ from Into the Blue by The Joy Formidable. Placed at 82, the album was released in August of this year and was the band’s first new release since 2018.
‘Gotta Feed My Dog’ is the sixth track on Into the Blue, and through it the band spreads the message of #adoptdontshop. Lead vocalist Ritzy Bryan, whose now-adopted foster puggle is the video’s star, explained that to her the song ‘feels like a walk in the mountains… with your best (canine) friend, shedding the thoughts of the day. Or a tipsy walk home from the pub, reeling from life’s vexations with your trusty dog at your side’.
In this week’s instalment of our 100 Greatest Welsh Albums of All Time countdown, Gary Raymond shared his thoughts on the album:
‘Into the Blue emerged from the flat plains and mountains ranges of Utah from Mold’s The Joy Formidable as a stern reminder what a great band they are. It’s an album full of rick little turns and alcoves of melodic rock. The guitar work is unabashed, and there are flashes of Muse, Mars Volta, and Queens of the Stone Age. No hiding the influences. You can’t help but get caught up in it; can’t help but strut the strut, pout the pout. It has that lovely spacious sound that used to sound like Kevin Shields with more oomph but now sounds like a conversation between band and mountain range. ‘Sevier’ — the most QOTSA-y track on the album — epitomises the intensity of the album. ‘Gotta Feed My Dog’ is an epic that brings Charlotte Gainsbourg most easily to mind. ‘Back to Nothing’ has a beautifully sentimental riff but brings it up with such verve it could be a Bond song. And then there’s ‘Interval’, an utter triumph of a recording that contains so much loose energy — not to mention a poignant, pensive perversity — that it would have sat well on a Bunnymen record, or perhaps in the central reservation of The Cure’s Disintegration (1989).’
Watch the video for ‘Gotta Feed My Dog’ below, and take a look at albums 90–81 of our 100 Greatest Welsh Albums of All Time countdown here.
Into the Blue by The Joy Formidable is available now.
