Music Review: Vance Joy "Riptide"

Vance Joy

Riptide

Album: Dream Your Life Away

Year: 2013

             Vance Joy has found a pretty girlfriend in the self-absorbed “Riptide.”

         A serene guitar opens the single, setting a philosphical tone. As a child, the sound of the drill and his grasps onto the chair, his knuckles turning white. He would start crying and he was mom would have to come into the room as the dentist filled a cavity. He had to have a nighlight for the longest time. He didn’t like being himself without seeing his room. As a teenager, he wasn’t good around girls. With her, though, the conversation was easy and she got him to relax. However, his new girlfriend could be a supermodel. She’s fun and witty. His friends wished they would’ve met her first. (“I was scared of dentists and the dark/I was scared of pretty girls and starting conversations/Oh, all my friends are turning green/You're the magician's assistant in their dreams/Oh, and they come unstuck.”)

              In the chorus, he wants to be her husband one day. Sometimes, he’ll catch her singing softly along to the radio and mishearing the lyrics. It’s so human. (“Lady, running down to the riptide/Taken away to the dark side/I wanna be your left hand man/I love you when you're singing that song and/I got a lump in my throat cause/You're gonna sing the words wrong.”)

           He suggests a movie they could see together. He can relate to the male character. He’s restless and dreaming of more. Then, he meets a beautiful woman who changes his life. (“There's this movie that I think you'll like/This guy decides to quit his job and heads to New York City/This cowboy's running from himself/And she's been living on the highest shelf/Oh, and they come unstuck.”)

             The chorus is sung again.

              He’s afraid he’s going to lose her. At any moment, she’ll decide she deserves and then leave. She could be a movie star. (“I just wanna, I just wanna know/If you're gonna, if you're gonna stay/I just gotta, I just gotta know/I can't have it, I can't have it any other way/I swear she's destined for the screen/Closest thing to Michelle Pfeiffer that you've ever seen.”)

             The chorus is sung twice.

           An extended chorus is sung to end the single. (“Oh lady, running down to the riptide…I got a lump in my throat cause/You're gonna sing the words wrong/I got a lump in my throat cause you're gonna sing the words wrong.”),

           Joy’s pensive vocals treats his thoughts with the utmost important. For every word must be taken seriously and to heart. While he can spin some imaginative  visuals (“you’re the magician’s assistant in their dreams”), he still sticks to teenybopper cliches.

          The Michelle Pfeiffer reference is out of place. In context, she hasn’t had a lead role in a movie for a really long time. In the 90s, the reference would’ve fit.

          The  green  “Riptide” is a start but there is still a ways to go.