Over a syncopated beat lightly touched by amapiano, The Joy stack five voices into a warning for a young woman named Jessica. A soaring lead rides above low parts drawn from church singing as the English chorus urges her to “hold on to your halo” and warns that “this boy is only faking”. The isiZulu verses add her parents’ repeated scolding over her habit of changing boyfriends, along with the singers’ own jealousy.
“Jessica” is the third preview of Home, an eight-track EP out on 13 November, which the group recorded in London studios, far from KwaZulu-Natal. That distance shaped the title, and the five now describe home as “wherever the five of us can harmonise”. The EP gathers this year’s singles “Precious” and “Omunye”, both issued through the New York label Hundred Days Records, with two a cappella pieces among the new material. Production comes from Henry Kwapis, the Australian producer Kito and Noah Beresin, a collaborator of Christine and the Queens.
That harmony began in the choir at Sikhethuxolo High School in Hammarsdale, a township outside Durban, where Siphelele Sandile Hlophe, Ntokozo Magcaba, Melokuhle Mkhungo, Sanele Ngcobo and Phelelani Sithole formed the group. Their style descends from isicathamiya and mbube, the Zulu a cappella traditions that Ladysmith Black Mambazo took to the world. Since the 2021 single “Isencane Lengane”, it has taken them to Glastonbury and Coachella and onto their 2024 debut album The Joy, recorded live in a single take at London’s Church Studios, voices only.
On 22 November the quintet return to the Barbican, which they sold out on their 2024 debut at the EFG London Jazz Festival, this time closing the festival before dates at Strange Brew in Bristol on 23 November and Band on the Wall in Manchester on 25 November.
Hear “Jessica” HERE