Overjoyed is an album by the American

art punk Art punk is a subgenre of punk rock in which artists go beyond the genre's rudimentary garage rock and are considered more sophisticated than their peers. These groups still generated punk's aesthetic of being simple, offensive, and free-spirit ...

band

Half Japanese Half Japanese is an American art punk band formed by brothers Jad and David Fair around 1975, sometime after the family's relocation to Uniontown, Maryland. Their original instrumentation included a small drum set, which they took turns playi ...

, released on September 2, 2014, on

Joyful Noise Recordings Joyful Noise Recordings is an independent record label from Indianapolis, Indiana. The label was founded in 2003 in Bloomington, Indiana by Karl Hofstetter, who also played drums on many of the label's first releases. Joyful Noise maintains an a ...

. It is their first album since ''

Hello ''Hello'' is a salutation or greeting in the English language. It is first attested in writing from 1826. Early uses ''Hello'', with that spelling, was used in publications in the U.S. as early as the 18 October 1826 edition of the ''Norwich C ...

'', released in 2001. It was produced by John Dieterich of

Deerhoof Deerhoof are an American musical group formed in San Francisco in 1994. They currently consist of founding drummer Greg Saunier, bassist and singer Satomi Matsuzaki, and guitarists John Dieterich and Ed Rodriguez. Beginning as an improvised noi ...

Critical reception

According to review aggregator

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which compiles and averages reviews from well-known music critics, ''Overjoyed'' has a score of 74 out of 100, indicating generally favorable reviews. Paul McGuinness, writing in ''

Record Collector ''Record Collector'' is a British monthly music magazine. It was founded in 1980 and distributes worldwide. History The early years The first standalone issue of ''Record Collector'' was published in March 1980, though its history stretches ba ...

'' magazine, said that "''Overjoyed'' is a brilliant album – quite probably the best new record from a guitar band all year." Mark Deming of ''

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

'' gave ''Overjoyed'' four out of five stars and noted that the album is more cheerful lyrically than is typical for Half Japanese's work. Some critics gave the album mixed reviews; Adam Kivel wrote that the album's "clean production...too frequently redoubles the intentional toothlessness of the lines."

Track listing

#"In Its Pull" #"Meant To Be That Way" #"Brave Enough" #"Do It Nation" #"The Time Is Now" #"Our Love" #"Shining Star" #"Each Other's Arms" #"Overjoyed and Thankful" #"We Are Sure" #"As Good Can Be" #"Tiger Eyes"

Personnel

*Craig Bowen - engineer *John Dieterich - mastering, mixing *

Jad Fair Jad Fair (born June 9, 1954) is an American singer, guitarist, graphic artist, and founding member of lo-fi alternative rock group Half Japanese. Biography Fair was born in Coldwater, Michigan. In 1974, he and his brother David formed the lo-fi ...

- cover art, group member, layout, vocals *Half Japanese - composer, primary artist *Mick Hobbs - group member, guitar, organ (Hammond) *Jared Paolini - engineer *Gilles-Vincent Reider - drums, group member, melodica, percussion, synthesizer *John Sluggett - group member, guitar, synthesizer, composer *Jason Willett - bass guitar, group member *David Woodruff - layout

References

{{Authority control Half Japanese albums 2014 albums