Vance Joy
Pop
Vance Joy is Australian for Ed Sheeran. The 30-year-old singer-songwriter from Melbourne and his scruffy English counterpart both benefited by a leg up from Taylor Swift (Joy was tapped to serve as the opening act on her record-breaking 1989 World Tour). Sheeran and Joy also share a similar knack for delivering downtrodden songs with a ray of sunshine. On his second album, “Nation of Two,” the artist born James Gabriel Wanderson Keogh traces the longing and heartache that goes into a passionate romantic relationship, swinging from euphoric choruses (“Saturday Sun”) to spare ballads that owe a clear debt to Leonard Cohen’s folk period (“Call If You Need Me”) — all delivered with the swagger of someone who’s determined to replicate the platinum sales he’s accomplished back home around the rest of the world.
— Aidin Vaziri