Clip arrives as group sets out on its first U.S. tour
Big Joanie find a melancholy groove in their song “Your Words” in video of a live performance of the track that the band filmed in London. Singer-guitarist Stephanie Phillips sings about the destructive power of words over dream-pop synths and thrumming guitar: “You don’t see the way it hurts me,” she sings. “Look at all of me, I’m right here/Still you don’t see the way it hurts me.”
The group released the clip of the tune, which appears on their recent Back Home album, a day after kicking off their first-ever North American tour last night in Denver. The trek, which features dates that run through June, visits each region of the continent — including two nights in Brooklyn — before wrapping at Chicago’s Empty Bottle.
Back Home was one of Rolling Stone’s Best Albums of 2022. “This trio of Black British feminists self-identify as punk, but this album makes it plain that the world is their musical oyster,” the magazine wrote. “From the cascading harmonies and chorus-pedaled riffs with which ‘Cactus Tree’ crashes in, up to the video-game synths of ‘Sainted,’ Back Home shows Big Joanie ready to try anything and coming up a winner each time.”
When the band announced the tour, it released a similar video capturing a live performance of the song “Cactus Tree,” which featured Phillips, bassist Estella Adeyeri, and drummer Chardine Taylor-Stone playing alongside musician Vanessa Govinden who joined them on the tour. They’ve previously released videos for studio versions of the songs “In My Arms,” which pays tribute to queer romance, and “Confident Man,” which sends up toxic masculinity.