This weekend on 92.9, we are bringing you the Top 10 Songs from Vance Joy. Joy released his debut studio album Dream Your Life Away on 5 September 2014 in Australia. At the ARIA Music Awards of 2015, he won Best Male Artist. His second studio album, Nation of Two, was released in 2018.
10.
Straight Into Your Arms
Dream Your Life Away (2015)
The song is included on the deluxe edition of his debut studio album Dream Your Life Away, which was re-released in 2015. The song was released in February 2016 and has peaked at number 56 on the ARIA Chart. The music video is directed by UK based director Toby Ashenheim, and the poignant video sees two puppets engaged in a stirring and emotional dance, mirrored by their human shadows. The video took months of meticulous, painstaking work to create
9.
Red Eye
Dream Your Life Away (2014)
This song about a geographical heartache has a time-tested storyline. "It's a tried and true story," Vance Joy said. "You put two lovers in a song, separate them, and you've got three minutes to reunite them. I suppose it's a story that has been told and re-told in different forms. It's reliable."
8.
I'm With You
Nation of Two (2018)
A 15-second sample of the song was released on Joy's Facebook page in February 2018, a week before the release of Joy's second studio album Nation of Two. A single edit and re-recorded version was released on 21 September 2018 as the sixth single from Joy's Nation of Two. Upon released, Joy said: "Last month, at the end of the North American, tour I went back into the studio to re-record a song from Nation of Two. It's one of my favourite songs off the album, and a lot of people I have met over the last few months on tour have shared how much they love this track as well. I wanted to create a version with a band feel that had a bit more fire."
7.
Saturday Sun
Nation of Two (2017)
This bouncy track features an appropriately summery ukulele melody and a horn line in the chorus. Lyrically, the song starts with Vance Joy singing of loneliness before becoming a sun-drenched singalong. When Joy went to record the song on the Californian west coast, the sunshine put him in a better mood. "I was working in a studio in Malibu, and I'd catch the Pacific Highway along the coast," he recalled. "I'd drive myself up to the studio every day, and I loved looking over the water. I guess my imagination was taking over and I was imagining meeting someone and making a road trip to see them."
6.
Lay It On Me
Nation of Two (2017)
Vance Joy recalled the story behind this song: "I had this guitar riff I had been playing for ages but had never found a home for. When it was glued together with a lyric I had in my phone, 'everything starts at your skin,' the song started to make sense." The song topped Billboard's Adult Alternative Songs airplay chart. It was Joy's second #1 in a row on that particular tally, following the reign of "Fire and the Flood" at the summit.
5.
Mess is Mine
Dream Your Life Away (2014)
This is a construct of good ideas shoehorned into one tune. "It's total cannibalization that song," Vance Joy explains. "There's so many bits from other songs I had on the wreck heap. Some of the lyrics are from conversations I had, like my friend who had a crush on two blonde guys in a hostel in Byron Bay, so I got that line 'check me in and check me out' from her. That stayed with me."
4.
Georgia
Dream Your Life Away (2014)
Vance Joy wrote this on January 1, 2014 following a period of struggling to come up with any songs. "The well doesn't dry up," he said. "Before 'Georgia,' I wasn't feeling particularly inspired, then that song came out of nowhere. I was on a high for five days. You can't force it, but it's nice to know that now you recognize when a song is coming." This is Joy's favorite song from his Dream Your Life Away album to play live. He explained "It's got a nice groove and it's slightly different in terms of the flavor and the instrumentation than the other songs on my album."
3.
We're Going Home
Nation of Two (2018)
Released on 12 January 2018 as the third single from Joy's second studio album Nation of Two. Joy said of the song that it was written whilst on tour in the US opening for Taylor Swift. Joy said: "It's a song that took me by my surprise. It's about stepping out into the unknown and finding out what you're made of, which I did a bit on that tour. I was definitely scared opening up shows for Taylor Swift. It was kind of scary but I'm glad this song arrived."
2.
Fire and the Flood
Dream Your Life Away (2014)
The song is included on the deluxe edition of his debut studio album Dream Your Life Away (2014). The song was released on 24 July 2015 and tops the ARIA chart for Aussie artists on the Australia Singles Chart. Joy wrote the song in February 2015 and recorded it in Los Angeles. Joy explains ;"There was a couple of moments when the song started coming together. I wrote this guitar riff that ended up being the line that the horns play and just a few lyrics that were rolling around in my head... When we were recording it, it feels like an epic song so we may as well treat it that way."
1.
Riptide
God Loves You When You're Dancing (2013)
This ukulele-led song is a track from his his debut EP God Loves You When You're Dancing, which was released in March 2013 through Mushroom Group label Liberation Music. It peaked at #7 on the ARIA singles Chart and was the best selling song of 2013 by an Australian. The song's melody came to Joy on his way back from his local store to buy some food for dinner and he found himself humming the chorus. The song earned Joy a five-album deal with Atlantic Records after a talent scout at the label got to hear the tune. "I did have a good feeling about the song, an intuition. I knew it was special