Better Joy Share New Single 'Dead Plants'

Following their debut single ‘Hard To Love' released in Autumn last year, Manchester based Better Joy have shared their new single ‘Dead Plants' via new independent label Fader Amp. 

An alternative love song that pores over a relationship, ‘Dead Plants' continues to showcase Better Joy's addictive fusion of contrast. Balancing brooding lyrical content and distorted shoegaze guitars with a layered melody and jaunty chorus that revels in the bittersweet beauty of love “I love you, but you make it hard to like you”, the track is both life-affirming and nostalgically melancholic.  

It was mixed by Caesar (Boygenius, Wet Leg, Beach House). The video, directed by Cal McIntyre (The Last Dinner Party), is a deadpan humoured visual set to a woodland backdrop. 

Bria says, “'Dead Plants' explores the complexities of love; when relationships are drying out and you don't have a lot left to water them with. When they're one-sided; when you're at the end of your tether but the love is unconditional, so it's both a nightmare and equally hard to let go; to accepting and understanding that someone won't or can't change. The love isn't lost, it's reinvented and re-shaped to cater to our own needs and boundaries.”

Fronted and created by Bria Keely and completed by her band, Better Joy's alternative pop sound is a deft fusion of the classic and the contemporary. Boldly experimenting between opposites, such as deep lyrics combined with forthrightly simple melodies, and sheer vulnerability matched with innate steeliness, is what makes Better Joy so exhilaratingly fresh.

Beginning writing songs at university, initially on piano and then guitar, Bria started making and sending out demos, which led to a friend putting her in contact with producer Mike Peden. Influenced by an array of artists from The Jesus & Mary Chain to Phoebe Bridgers and The Cure, Bria revels in exploring love; through romance, friendships and by examining her relationship with herself. 

‘Hard To Love' and ‘Dead Plants' are more than just a heady introduction to Better Joy – they're a compelling addition to the rich musical legacy of the North-West.