Sometimes you find an artist who guarantees to deliver time and time again and for me, that’s Vance Joy. ‘Like Gold’ is the second single to be released from the Aussie acoustic-folk maestro’s eagerly anticipated (and some would say not before time, ahem) forthcoming new album. It follows the summer release of the impossibly upbeat, brass-laden joy (no pun intended) that is ‘Lay It On Me’.
Although this offering has a faintly more subdued melody compared to that of its predecessor, it is loaded with hauntingly lovely acoustic guitar picking and an unwavering percussive pulse and is still full of Vance Joy’s characteristically striking lyrical imagery and similes (‘Blue, how we used to roar/Like an open fire/That’s the way it was/But that’s history’). He conjures up nostalgic anguish for us in those flames, laying bare the embers of a relationship that he’s not ready to let go of quite yet.
When I saw Vance Joy perform to a 350 capacity crowd at The Omeara in London a fortnight ago, this song was a clear favourite amongst the audience of the new material, hypnotising us with its beautiful soothing cadence. In fact the only thing that temporarily broke the spell was when he had to stop and re-start when initially failing to hit the first high note in the middle eight, but he managed to do it with such humility, charm and good humour that the crowd laughingly led him back into it with a hearty rendition of the chorus’ resonant ‘O-o-o-o-o-o’s to warm him up for it again. Magical.
‘Like Gold’ was released on the 2nd November and his European tour dates for next spring went on sale last week. His second album, ‘Nation of Two’ is due out in February and I for one, can’t wait.
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