The Joy Formidable

• Ritzy Bryan - Composer, Guitar, Vocals
• Rhydian Dafydd Davies - Bass, Composer, Illustrations, Vocals
• Matt Thomas - Drums

Additional personnel

• Jeremy Cowart - Photography
• Danny North - Photography
• Alex Kirzhner - Layout

Reception

The Big Roar has received mostly positive reviews. The album currently has a 77 out of 100 on the review aggregate site Metacritic

Metacritic

Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...

, which indicates "generally favorable reviews."

Reviewer Mike Haydock of BBC Music

BBC Music

BBC Music is a team working in the department of Audio and Music Interactive at the BBC. Responsible for the BBC Music website - the portal site to music content across the BBC website....

 praised the album, calling the album "a fantastic debut." Lisa Wright of NME

NME

The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...

 also gave the album a positive review, writing "The Big Roar is the kind of epic-yet-intimate debut that does exactly what its title makes out in the most tactful of styles; an LP that ultimately delivers on every count on the four years of promise leading up to it." In another positive review, Clash

Clash (magazine)

Clash is a popular music and fashion magazine based in the United Kingdom. Its magazine title is published 12 times a year. It has a circulation of around 40,000....

 wrote of the album: "Bolt on an undeniably zealous execution, a set of simple yet well-written songs, add an element of confident adventure via some experimentation and diversity and the rebirth of indie may just have found its leading protagonists."

In a more mixed review, Stuart Berman of Pitchfork Media

Pitchfork Media

Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...

 criticized the album for being over excessive, writing "There's no denying the Joy Formidable's passion, vigor, and pop smarts; it would just be easier to appreciate those qualities if The Big Roar didn't so often sound like a big blur." Jason Keller of Now Magazine

NOW (magazine)

Now is a free weekly newspaper in Toronto, Canada. It was first printed on September 10, 1981 by Michael Hollett and Alice Klein. Now is an alternative weekly mixing arts and entertainment news with political coverage....

 agreed, writing "The immediate criticism about this long-in-the-making debut... is that there’s too much big, as the title suggests."

Album

Chart (2011)	Peak position
UK Albums Chart UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart...	31
US Billboard Heatseekers Top Heatseekers Top Heatseekers refers to either of two separate "Breaking and Entering" music charts issued weekly by Billboard Magazine: the Heatseekers Albums chart or the Heatseekers Songs chart. They were introduced by Billboard in 1993 with the purpose of highlighting the sales by new and developing musical...	8

Singles

Year	Song	Peak positions
		UK UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...	US Alt	US Rock Rock Songs Rock Songs is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine which ranks the airplay of songs on alternative, mainstream rock and triple A radio stations. The first chart was published in the issue dated June 20, 2009. "Know Your Enemy" by Green Day was the first number-one song. The Rock Songs...
2010	"I Don't Want To See You Like This"	—	—	—
2011	"Austere Austere (song) "Austere" is the debut single by Welsh Indie band The Joy Formidable on the Another Music = Another Kitchen record label. In a short review of the track The Times described it as "dreamy indie pop", and the track appeared on trailers for Channel 4's Skins.The song also appears on the band's debut... "	—	—	—
2011	"Whirring"	—	7	25
"—" denotes releases that did not chart.

External links

• Official band website