The Regrettes - Further Joy (LP)

The Regrettes have always felt like a band in real time, growing up in public and letting every sharp turn show. Further Joy, released on April 8, 2022 on Warner Records, is their most striking pivot yet, not because the songs are safer, but because they lean into clarity. The guitars still bite, the hooks still stick, yet the palette opens up with bright synths, clean harmonies, and rhythms built for movement rather than mosh. It is the Los Angeles group’s third studio album, following Feel Your Feelings, Fool! and How Do You Love?, and it reads like a conversation with their own nerves. Lydia Night sings about dread and desire with an eye for detail, then wraps those admissions in choruses that invite you to sing along before you clock the sting.

The singles sketched the arc clearly. Anxieties (Out of Time) is a rush of jittery pop that turns spiraling thoughts into a quick-footed dance, the tempo almost outrunning the fear it names. You’re So F***ing Pretty arrived first, late in 2021, and it remains the album’s most disarming moment, a tender confession about a same sex crush that Night discussed openly in interviews. The song keeps its arrangement simple, which lets the lyric land without hedging. Monday works as a thesis too, a glossy lament for the way malaise can flatten a week before it starts, while Barely on My Mind sways with a lighter touch that hints at the band’s new comfort with space.

Lineup matters here. Night fronts with a voice that can flip from sugar to scald, but The Regrettes thrive on interplay. Genessa Gariano’s guitar lines decorate rather than dominate, threading little runs and chiming textures through the melodies. Brooke Dickson’s bass does a lot of heavy lifting, often carrying the melodic center while the rest of the band pushes and pulls around it. Drew Thomsen’s drums feel locked and springy, closer to dance pop precision than the band’s earlier garage thump. That shift is not an abandonment of their roots so much as a reframing of them. The tension that used to explode in distorted shout alongs now bubbles inside gleaming arrangements.

Plenty of critics clocked the change. Outlets like NME and Rolling Stone pointed to the album’s gleaming surface and the way it houses some of the band’s most candid writing. That balance comes through across the tracklist, where self doubt and compassion share space. The chorus craft is consistent, which means you get those satisfying release valves again and again, even when the verses are cataloging panic. The title becomes a mission statement. Joy is not the default setting here, it is a place you work toward, and the band lets you hear the work.

Context helps. The Regrettes spent the years before Further Joy building a reputation for high energy shows and direct, heart on sleeve songs, then took this material on the road as the world crept back to live music. Their Coachella appearances in April 2022 landed right as the record dropped, a well timed showcase for this shinier but still muscular version of the group. On stage, the polish did not sand down the edges. It just made the peaks hit cleaner.

If you collect The Regrettes vinyl, this album earns its place. Further Joy vinyl puts the band’s new colors in relief, the crisp production and stacked vocals translating cleanly on a good system. It is also an easy recommendation for anyone trying to buy The Regrettes records online without sifting through a discography first. The set captures where they came from and where they are headed, and it does so with the kind of immediacy that pays off on repeat spins. Fans who like The Regrettes albums on vinyl for the art and the experience will also appreciate how cohesive this one feels as a front to back listen.

Searches for The Regrettes vinyl tend to spike when a new tour is announced, and it is easy to see why. These are songs that invite participation, and they carry that same jolt in the living room. Whether you are flipping through bins in a Melbourne record store or browsing shops that ship vinyl records Australia wide, Further Joy deserves a spot in the stack. It is the sound of a band taking a risk in plain sight, then finding the sweet spot where gloss and gut can live together.