No Joy's 2020 album
Motherhood saw the project's leader
Jasamine White-Gluz taking bold leaps in what sometimes felt like several directions at once. The album's chaotic mishmash of styles and genres brought to the surface an experimental spirit that had existed mostly as an undertone on
No Joy's earlier, more shoegaze-oriented material. Companion EP
Can My Daughter See Me from Heaven takes
White-Gluz's artistic wandering even further out, reworking four tracks from
Motherhood (and a bonus
Deftones cover) in wildly different arrangements than the already colorful album versions. The EP starts with "Kidder," the track that closed out
Motherhood as a synthy anthem. Instead of the barrage of fuzzy guitars and pulsing drums of the
Motherhood version, here the song opens with gentle harp plucks, ethereal vocalizations, and glistening slide guitar. This angelic approach is applied to most of the songs, cheekily tying in the title of the EP by offering up heavenly versions of tunes that writhed in confusion and strife in their earthly forms. This approach works to especially beautiful effect on the
Motherhood standout "Four." The album version was a laid-back trip-hop jaunt, complete with retrofitted samples and production that evoked early-'90s nostalgia before breaking down into a buzzy metal bridge. There's none of that with the heavenly version, with orchestral percussion, French horn, an operatic choir, and fluttering harp delivering a much toned-down version of the instrumental, and graceful strings replacing the tremolo-picked metal guitars of the original.
No Joy's take on the
Deftones'
White Pony track "Teenager" is also molded to fit the subdued atmosphere of
Can My Daughter See Me from Heaven, while "Dream Rats," one of the more volatile
Motherhood tracks, takes on a slower, more plodding kind of intensity.
White-Gluz choosing to continue the evolution of these songs in the form of dreamy postscripts speaks to her always-changing creative vision and is more evidence of just how boundless
No Joy has become. ~ Fred Thomas
