Bigger Than Your Box

Description

Bigger Than Your Box is an album by the American singer and songwriter Joy Ike, Kickstarter-funded and independently released in April 2018. The album was recorded and mixed by Pat DiCenso with Dave Brophy producing.

Fresh from her participation in the worship collective The Porter’s Gate last year, this multi-hyphenated songwriter-pianist-singer offers a fourth solo album with the warm pop-soul tones (one gets used to the hyphens in genre-bending artists) of «Stay», a meditation on Psalm 139. “No place I hide that You cannot go, no place, no shadow that isn’t Your home.” The second track «By the Fire» starts with deceptively mellow solo piano before kicking into a driving samba for the second half. Other songs tackle themes of encouragement and romantic devotion. «Walk» expounds on Micah 6:8’s instruction that we act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God. «Give a Little» breezes by with accordion and castanets. The stop-start acoustic guitar and string bass of «Full» back a cautionary tale about know-it-alls. “You’re so full, you eat yourself.” In these days when so many songs loop the same four bars over and over, it’s a sheer delight to listen to music crafted to start in one place and then go somewhere else. The Philadelphian’s robust alto drifts between bright Sara Bareilles-style pop, Alicia Keys’ tuneful R&B, and moments of modern gospel. Strings and brushed toms augment the piano base, hooky as anything you’d hope to hear. [Robert Berman, Worship Musician Magazine, August 6, 2018]

> iTunes

CD tracklist:

01. Ever Stay – 3:56
02. By the Fire – 5:12
03. You Betta’ – 1:36
04. Last Time – 5:30
05. Hold On – 4:03
06. Give a Little – 4:32
07. Full – 3:46
08. Say Goodbye – 4:29
09. I Don’t Know Anything – 4:53
10. Walk – 5:54
11. Assurance – 4:29

Note: Relased on both CD and 12-inch vinyl LP. Available at Bandcamp: https://joyike.bandcamp.com/album/bigger-than-your-box

[youtube_sc url=”R-cpWKqmVCU” playlist=”c4yThfF0q6I” title=”Joy Ike – Walk, NPR Tiny Desk Contest 2016 + Ever Stay, NPR Tiny Desk Contest 2018″ autohide=”1″ rel=”0″]