Video: Jess Joy, ‘My Body’

Kevin Bronson on November 5th, 2023

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Jess Joy’s voice is an instrument of wonder — Björk’s is really the only comparison — and to follow it through her “maximalist pop” compositions is like being on an adrenaline-pounding, seemingly improvisational thrill ride.

But it is her subject matter that gives her melodious perambulations the heft of a true siren.

On her 2021 debut album “Patreearchy,” it was gender dynamics, the vagaries of which she explores even more assertively on the follow-up, “Sourceheiress.” OUt this week via Joyful Noise Recording, it’s described as “rites of exorcism of patriarchal culture in her body, leading to divine reconnection with spirit.”

The album was made in collaboration with Mike Byrne, onetime drummer in the Smashing Pumpkins. Byrne composed and performed the music on “Sourceheiress;” the vocal melody lines and lyrics are Joy’s.

A mime, painter and director, Joy, formerly one-half of the duo Moon Honey, accents her experimental music with fanciful visuals, whether on video or live. They are rife with symbolism; witness, for instance, the intentional breaking of the mirror in the video for “Lily of the Valley.”

On “My Body,” she sings: “I’m inventing a god / who doesn’t punish me / I’m alone / but i’m free! / Now what do i do with my body? / You don’t own me …”

Joy is rare among artists who are capable of creating their own mythology; in that way, “Sourceheiress” argues, in its otherworldly way, to right the tilt of the world.

||| Watch: The videos for “My Body” and “Lily of the Valley”