Rebecca Hennessy: Joy Will Find Us
Rebecca Hennessy

If there's a downside to releasing an album as wonderful as All The Little Things You Do, it's the dauntingly high bar it sets for its sequel. While earlier releases established her as a bandleader, trumpeter, and composer of considerable note, Rebecca Hennessy's 2020 album showed her to also be a singer-songwriter of the first rank and a terrific singer to boot. The Toronto-based artist's follow-up is, at twenty-eight minutes, more mini-album than full-length but rises to the same level as its predecessor on a number of songs. In many ways, Joy Will Find Us feels like a natural extension of the earlier one, even if its thematic content reflects things that were happening in her life at the time of its creation.

Laid down at Hennessy's home studio with her husband, bassist Michael Herring, Joy Will Find Us was recorded a month before their daughter's birth and completed as the couple adapted to the challenges of new parenthood. The release naturally brims with feelings of hope, affirmation, and appreciation; it also, however, alludes to the numbing effect of pandemic-related lockdowns. Fleshing out the core of vocals, basses, and horns the couple created for the songs are contributions from guitarist Kevin Breit and drummer Dave Clark (Tim Shia also drums on one song). That their parts were added remotely is consistent with the production approach many artists utilized during that period.

One of Rebecca's secret weapons is her expressive voice, a warm, clear, and natural instrument that on the ballad-styled material in particular establishes an instant connection with the listener. That's never more apparent than on the rapturous “Dandelions,” whose music and lyrics lift the spirits in equal measure. A celebration of spring's awakening and its promise of new life, the song perfectly captures the hope that nature's blossoming brings. As she sings “With hearts still beating / Joy will find us,” this magnificent song soars and enters that rare place where music induces chills. Radiance also emanates from the livelier “Here I Am,” a rousing celebration teeming with gratitude and familial love. A song title such as “Isolation” might suggest it'll be a depressing reflection, but Hennessy instead finds a silver lining in the closeness that comes from enduring trying circumstances with a partner—even if the “Simon Says”-like commands that repeat at song's end (“Sit down, get up … do it again, do it again”) relay the sense of robotic repetition that attended many a lockdown day. Emotionally affecting too is “Don't Fight It,” which features an especially lovely lead vocal and vibrant harmonies.

Whereas some songs accentuate her sensitive side, there's playfulness and exploration too. The jaunty “You Make Our Dreams” is high-spirited, even gleeful, in its soulful celebration of the arrival of a “little one.” “Lay Down Your Burden” is delivered in a rockabilly style whose swing calls to mind early rock'n'roll. The closing “Remember You're Not Done” opts for more experimental territory in its coupling of dub-inflected verses, treated lead vocals, and mariachi horn-driven choruses.

May 2023