album rating: ★★★★☆
Genre: Soul / funk / orchestral soul / progressive soul / quiet storm. Joy is the sixth studio album by Isaac Hayes (Covington, Tennessee, 1942 – Memphis, 2008), the Grammy and Academy Award-winning musician, songwriter and producer who had transformed soul music with Hot Buttered Soul (1969) and the Shaft soundtrack (1971). It was released in October 1973 on Enterprise Records, the Stax imprint that had hosted all of Hayes's solo output, and is notable as his first non-soundtrack album composed entirely of original material — five extended compositions, all written by Hayes, with a total running time of approximately 47 minutes. The album opens with the 15-minute title track 'Joy', a sprawling, orchestral-funk epic characterised by Hayes's characteristic spoken-word introduction, an insistent breakbeat and a slow build to an emotional and sensual climax. The remaining four tracks — 'I Love You That's All' (6:14), 'A Man Will Be a Man' (7:20), 'The Feeling Keeps On Coming' (6:48) and 'I'm Gonna Make It (Without You)' (11:11) — continue in the same mode of extended, intimate soul. Arrangements were by Johnny Allen and Hayes, with female vocal arrangements by Pat Lewis; the Hot Buttered Soul Unlimited provided female backing vocals; the Memphis Strings and Movement Horns furnished orchestration.
Label: Enterprise Records (a subsidiary of Stax Records), October 1973. Self-produced by Isaac Hayes.
Producer: Isaac Hayes.
Recording studio: Stax Records studios, Memphis, Tennessee, USA. Engineers: Henry Bush and William Brown.
Critical reception: On release, Joy received mixed reviews, with critics divided between those who admired the epic scope and sensual depth of the title track and those who felt the formula was becoming repetitive. Retrospective assessments have been considerably warmer. In its obituary of Hayes, the Los Angeles Times called the title track 'epic' and 'maybe the most sensual outing he ever recorded.' The title track has since been sampled in over 80 hip-hop recordings, including tracks by Eric B. & Rakim, the Jungle Brothers and Kanye West's '30 Hours' (2016), attesting to its enduring influence on the development of funk-based rap production.
Commercial success: Joy peaked at number 16 on the Billboard 200 and was certified gold by the RIAA. An edited version of the title track was released as a hit single. The album appeared at a difficult moment for Stax Records, which was experiencing serious financial pressures in 1973–74, and Hayes himself faced mounting personal debt; he would eventually sue Stax and leave the label in 1974. Nevertheless, Joy stands as one of the artistically significant records of his catalogue and a key document in the history of orchestral soul.
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