2in1! JOYFUL/ Don't Stay- X Ambassadors Review(s)

X Ambassadors... well, I have some mixed feelings about them. They range from kinda bad to kinda good, and almost at random. Their first album was decent, with their biggest hit (and one of their best songs) being made for a Jeep commercial. They released a few singles last year, the mediocre Torches, Hoping, and Ahead Of Myself, and one pretty good one, The Devil You Know. I was happy that last song is going to be on JOYFUl, their new and second album, as it's the only one worth listening to so far. Both these singles came out within a week or two of each other, so I decided to review them together.


JOYFUL starts as a pretty basic piano song with a verse that seems like it was written out of a rhyming dictionary, and launches into a trying-to-be-uplifting chorus. The second verse is a bit better, with some okay, basic drums, but is ruined as all the horns and entire choir and organ come in. It seems like it's trying to be the peak of some neo-gospel song, but there'd need to be stuff to build up to the peak to justify it, which there isn't.

Don't Stay provides a pretty big contrast, starting with all electronic synthes and drums instead of any real instruments, mainly a basic beat backed by atmospheric synthes. The verse has a pretty basic lyrics, which builds with some more synthes to a jerk, stunted chorus full of falsettos and the vox FX that have been gaining prevalence recently. The chorus is pretty meaningless, but the instrumentals after it are decent. The second verse is a bit better, sounding almost like Sir Sly. On the whole, it's not a bad pop song.

JOYFUL should be an okay album, with most of it being a badly matched but not to bad drag. I think X Ambassadors are kind of becoming directionless, with no real consistency or potency. They've managed to cross multiple styles without doing very well or even getting a hit, but at least they haven't severely bombed.