Brave (Joyryde album)


Brave is the debut studio album by English DJ and producer Joyryde, who is also known as John Ford. It was released by American record label Hard Recs on 3 April 2020. The album consists of 18 songs, which include features of Mika Means, NoLay, Majilla, Youngs Teflon, Fze, and Gold. It features the 2016 song "Damn" as a bonus track.
Brave incorporates five distinct genres: Bass house, trap, hip hop, grime, and UK bass. Ford themed the album on his passion for music, energy, attitudes, and culture. Four songs released as promotional singles: "I'm Gone", "Yuck" featuring Gold, "Madden", and "Selecta 19". Fans believed that "Agen Wida", Ford's collaboration with Skrillex, was the debut single of the album; the announcement of the actual debut single "I'm Gone" disproved this.
Originally intended to be an extended play, Brave was written into an album while Ford was recovering from surgery. He wrote and finished several songs while coping with drug withdrawals as he stopped taking his prescribed nerve damage medication. The album was set for a late-November 2018 release but was delayed indefinitely due to technical reasons. Three months after the delay the first single, "I'm Gone", was released under Hard Recs. In early-March 2020, seventeen months after the album's delay, Ford announced that he had finished production.
Upon release, Brave received positive reviews from music critics, with them noting its attention to quality, detail, and sound design while saying that every song had their own unique identities. Before release, the album was listed by multiple online music magazines as one of the most anticipated albums. The single "I'm Gone" was selected as one of the best dance songs of 2019 and was voted as the Best Original Track of 2019 in the Bass House/G-House/Bassline category by the r/EDM subreddit.

Background

In October 2018, Ford uploaded a photo to his Instagram account of the logo to Owsla. Skrillex later posted a screenshot which teased a collaboration with Ford. The song, titled "Agen Wida", also appeared to be a part of an album. Skrillex's record label, Owsla, released the song on 19 October 2018. Soon after Ford announced "Agen Wida" he announced his debut album, Brave; the release date was revealed as 30 November 2018.
In late-November 2018, Ford delayed Brave indefinitely due to "mostly technical reasons" and "video deadlines and material clearance things." He announced the delay on Twitter three days prior to the album's initially planned release.
On 9 February 2019, 3 months after the initial release date, Ford announced that he would release the first single off of his album during that month. This confused fans as some believed that "Agen Wida" was the first single as Ford announced it alongside the album.
The song "I'm Gone" was released as the first single on Brave on 22 February 2019. The song released via Hard Recs, a subsidiary of the concert brand of the same name. The release of "I'm Gone" confirmed that the album wouldn't be released via Owsla, meaning that "Agen Wida" would not be featured on Brave.
Ford posted a teaser video to social media in early March 2020 showing off the album's tracklist. The video did not reveal any song titles or featured artists. The video confirmed that it would feature seventeen tracks, the same amount Ford had released in total under the Joyryde alias.

Production and composition

Recording

While Ford was writing an extended play, a disk in his lower back collapsed and underwent surgery. He said that he didn't feel like himself and had to take opioids and nerve damage medication to cope with the pain. They gave him hallucinations and suicidal thoughts and put him into a state of mind that made him unable to finish the extended play. He thought that it would be a long time before he would release again. Ford attempted to write music in his studio but later couldn't remember making some of the songs and ideas during sessions. He tried to get off of the medication to improve his mental state, but he suffered shakes, drug withdrawals, insomnia, and general pain. He finished one song during this time, then two more a week later.
On 5 March 2020, 16 months after the album's initial release date, Ford announced that he had finished production on Brave.

Music and lyrics

Brave explores genres including house, trap, hip hop, grime, and UK bass. Ford wrote Brave as a way to express his passion for music, energy, attitudes, and culture. He didn't feel like he was Joyryde, instead conveying it as a mood or style he fights to find while working in his studio. He went on further to say that a lot went into the album and it's not for him to determine whether it's good or not, but what he wanted it to be. Ford concluded by stating that the album was what Joyryde deserved. Ford makes use of vocals from featured artists and samples on the songs "On Fire", "Got Real", "Fail Me", "Arteries", "I'm Gone", "Brooklyn", "4AM", "RTTB", and "Damn".
"I'm Gone" is a bass house and trap song produced by Ford while medicated with opioid pills for his surgery; he had no memory of writing some parts of the song as an effect. He felt that his mental health was degrading while producing the song. He was grateful to have music and Joyryde in his life as that is what he felt brought himself back into the "strongest version" that he had ever been. The song features aggressive female rap vocals based on a danceable melody and synth structure, piano progressions and orchestral strings.
The second single "Yuck" is a mix of hip hop, bass and trap music and features rapping by Gold over 808s. Ford was impressed by Gold's vocals, tweeting that it was "like if he in the room with me." It makes use of trap drum chops rather than Ford's usual four-on-the-floor time signature and the second-half layers a series of vintage talking samples overtop. In an interview with Earmilk during the Electric Daisy Carnival festival in Japan, Ford said that Gold's lyrics worked seamlessly with the original track without effort. He estimated to have only spent nine hours working on the song and left the majority of the record untouched; he didn't want to overproduce the song as he knew it would "become lame" if he continued.
The third single, "Madden", samples Method Man's "Release Yo’ Delf" as part of its intro, layered alongside house music plucks before a breakdown. It is a mix of bass house and hip hop and makes use of complementary vocals and basslines. The Wolf Of Wall Street and the Lamborghini Countach heavily inspired the song.
"Selecta 19" is a bass house song set on a four-on-the-floor dance floor arrangement set at a tempo of 132 beats per minute. The song arranged its low-end-focused basslines over a topline melody with obnoxious vocals. Ford thought the original version of "Selecta 19" was good but felt a responsibility to improve upon it. He experimented by making it sound worse, de-polishing and making the song sound more "raw". He didn't want to have a lot of elements into the song as it could become confusing. After completing the song, he felt that the released production was the best version even if it was "architected to be worst sounding."

Cover

The cover for Brave features an X-ray of Mexican Painter Frida Kahlo following a bus accident she suffered at age 18.

Release

Ford announced the release date for Brave on 17 March 2020 via social media; he confirmed its release date to be in the following month, on 3 April via Hard Recs. The album, which Matthew Meadow of Your EDM described as "definitely one of the most-anticipated" releases of 2020, was to be released 15 months after its originally scheduled November 2018 release date. Ford revealed that Brave contained 17 tracks in a video he posted the week before its announcement, though it was unclear whether it would get any further singles before the official release. It was made available for pre-saving on the same day as its announcement. The album was released on digital download stores and streaming services with 18 songs, Ford's 2016 single "Damn" being featured as a bonus track.
Shortly before the release of Brave, Ford played an exclusive DJ mix for the 239th episode of Apple Music's OneMix radio station. It was composed of unreleased songs by Ford and other songs by various other artists such as Tchami, Malaa, Eprom, Skrillex, and Carnage. The set was later unofficially uploaded to SoundCloud by a fan.

Singles

Four singles for Brave were released, with the first being "I'm Gone" which was released as a single on 22 February 2019. In October 2019, an early version of the song surfaced online, but it was since updated and cleaned up for its official release. The single was marked as the first official release and launched Hard Recs. Pasquale Rotella—the head of Hard Rec's parent company Insomniac—stated that he was excited about the launch of the record label and believed that Ford was the "perfect person to kick things off." Ford's previous song, "Agen Wida", was thought to be released as the first single of Brave; the release of "I'm Gone" clarified this to not be the case. The song's contrast of emotional orchestral sections with "aggressive words and violent bass house frame" was described by Christina Hernandez from Dancing Astronaut as a depiction of Ford's "inner turmoil in a club-friendly way. Billboard's Kat Bein called "I'm Gone" a "mood-shifting" and "mind-bending" song that explores the mix of classical and urban styles, praising Ford's sound design.
"Yuck" was released next on 22 March 2019 and featured 20-year-old rapper Gold. Kat Bein described the song as an example of Ford's signature style of house music combined with trap music and hip-hop. She also highlighted Gold's vocals as standing out from the rest of the composition. Your EDM's Karlie Powell complimented the use of various bass music genres as well; she said that "any listener with a trained ear" would be "able to pinpoint" Ford's distinctive style. Bella Bagshaw, writing for Dancing Astronaut, called "Yuck" one of Ford's most lurid releases to date. She said that Gold's lyrical delivery solidified "the track's shadow-dwelling lifeblood" with the message to remain devoted to one's artistic endeavour to maintain a sense of individualism. Peach Gallagher praised the single by writing that Ford's "god-like production skills" turns "the party into a riot".
On 23 August 2019, Ford released "Madden" as the third single to the album. The song played during Ford's various live shows before release. Ford wrote that after seeing The Wolf of Wall Street, he wanted to do something with a Lamborghini Countach. On 26 July, he featured two Countachs during his live set Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles. The energetic release, as stated by Max Chung of Run the Trap, is a song with Ford's signature "mayhem" with "classic house plucks and unique vocals". Your EDM's Matthew Meadow wrote about the "UK flair" mixed with the song's bass house and hip hop composition, stating that it is something that only Ford had been able to master. Meadow continued, saying that the song was sure to be another classic in Ford's repertoire.
The release of the fourth single "Selecta 19" was delayed from its originally planned 3 May 2019 release. Ford explained that he decided to postpone it as he didn't like "the sound of a few parts in it". The announcement was posted to Instagram the day before its initial release. The song later released on 4 October 2019. Ford wrote in a social media post that the wanted no make a "no ego, fun, jump-up, good-vibe" song to contrast the album. Writing for EDM.com, Sarah Kocur said that "Selecta 19" captured Joyryde's "true essence" and noted that it was one of the most praised songs to be released from Ford's live sets. Omar Serrano of Run the Trap also noted the presence of the song in Ford's DJ mixes, saying that it gets "any crowd riled up". Serrano also described the song's vocals and basslines team-up "team up to create an absolute nasty cut."

Music video

The "Thrill" music video debuted on April 14, 2020, on Ford's YouTube channel. Directed by James Mackel, the video shows two lovers wreaking havoc in a Bonnie and Clyde-Esque storyline, featuring chase scenes with police and federal agents. The production of the music video was inspired by a quote on Majilla's Facebook page, which said: "sometimes you gotta play the villain". The music video includes a tribute to Rob Lyfe—the actor that played the lead male—who passed away six months before the music video's release.

Critical reception

Critical response to Brave was positive. Billboard's Kat Bein highly praised it, calling it a monster of an album that is "complex, hard, beautiful, dreamy, bass-fueled, chaotic and crunchy as hell." She noted "Fail Me" as the best the song for its "whiplash beats and inspirational message." Rachel Narozniak of Dancing Astronaut commended the album for its "mythical quality" and stated that it had lived up to the anticipation and said that the song repleted with Ford's signature bass house style. Writing for Your EDM, Karlie Powell exalted the album, writing that there was a never a dull moment with the album and each song shows the "immaculate sound design and fierce attention to detail" Ford put into the album as a whole. In her review of the album for EDM Identity, Raven Wright called Brave a masterpiece, citing its "variety of sounds and identities" throughout each song. She noted the song "Brooklyn" as her personal favourite, saying that she would "probably lose it when I'm able to hear it live."
Online magazines listed Brave in lists of albums "to look forward to". Your EDM and Run the Trap wrote about the album in their respective lists for expected albums to release in 2019 and 2020. Their respective lists each write about the album's 2018 and 2019 delays. Billboard included the album as one of their ten "electronic albums we're thankful are coming soon" list article, published in late-March 2020.
The song "I'm Gone" was awarded several online awards and titles. It was selected as one of the best dance songs of 2019 by Billboard, noting its exploration of "classical" chords, bass house grooves, and "assaultive" breakbeats and calling it a "collage of sounds, moods, and textures." Additionally, the song won Best Original Track in the Bass House/G-House/Bassline category on the Best of 2019 by the r/EDM subreddit.

Track listing

All tracks written and produced by John Ford, except where noted.
Notes
  • All tracks are stylised in all caps.
  • "Damn" was released as a bonus track.

    Personnel

Credits adapted from Tidal.
Technical and composing credits
  • John Ford – production, writing
  • Tamika Means – writing
  • Natalie Athanasiou – writing
  • Kathryn Renee Sanders – writing
  • Mark Anthony Wendell – writing
  • Roger Montgomery III – writing
  • Jimmy Conway – writing
  • Kawaun Malik Spruill Saunders – writing
  • Fredrick Jamel Tipton – writing

    Release history