There are heartbreak songs, and then there's "EPIDEMIC!" a blistering new single from Zalia Joi that doesn't just detail a breakup, it dissects it, then lights it on fire and throws the ashes at us. The first single off her upcoming project, "The Black Album," Joi's latest song is not so much about getting even as it is about growing up serving the ugly truth about love and just how disposable it has become in the 21st century.
Betrayal and ghosting, those modern plagues of intimacy, are the wallpaper here, but Joi is having none of this rulesman chaos. Instead, she wields her pen and her voice as a weapon, the pain behind it spun into a call to arms. The lyrics are biting, stripping back narcissistic games and emotionally irresponsible behaviors that are usually left to leave people gasping for closure. This is not simply a personal confession, it's a cultural calling, a clear-eyed examination of how we treat one another in the worst of times.
EPIDEMIC!, Produced by The Baby Animals' Eddie Parise. The watchdogs are out in force, muscular, anthemic, unapologetic. The guitars slash sharp, the rhythm section propels like a heart in overdrive, and Joi's vocal style is pure, soulful, theatrical, scorched with rock' n' roll motor. It's a song that demands to be cranked up, the sort you experience not just with your ears but with your whole chest.
What truly sets "EPIDEMIC!" Apart is Joi herself. She is also a musician and theatre-maker, performing as Rock 'n' Roll Goddessque, a healress embodied in the archetypes of Phoenix Priestess and Creatrix. It's not just branding, it's artistry. Emerging from betrayal, she channels myth and fire in her work, building songs that are as poetic as they are visceral. With "EPIDEMIC!," you receive both the wound and the resurrection.