{"id":33745,"date":"2025-09-01T07:34:42","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T05:34:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/addtowantlist.com\/?p=33745"},"modified":"2025-08-31T22:28:26","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T20:28:26","slug":"new-ep-understanding-the-joy-of-living","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/addtowantlist.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/01\/new-ep-understanding-the-joy-of-living\/","title":{"rendered":"New EP: Understanding || The Joy Of Living"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Some releases announce themselves with big gestures, but <em>The Joy Of Living<\/em> wins you over by quietly pulling you into its world. It is the debut EP by Understanding, a new indie pop quartet featuring Nolan Jakupovski (guitar, vocals), Lucas Temor (keyboards, vocals), Alex Baigent (bass), and Avalon Tassonyi (drums, percussion), musicians active in various acts in the Toronto scene. They take great care to avoid the clich\u00e9s of &#8216;piano rock&#8217;\u2014six diverse songs provide a bewitching listening experience thanks to a restless rhythm section, shimmering guitars, and yes, an inspired piano (and even beats in the closing track).<\/p>\n<p>The lyrics wrestle with how we make\u2014and often fail to make\u2014meaning in our daily lives. It&#8217;s about recognizing imperfection and maybe even finding comfort in it, and that is well reflected in the jazz-tinged, spontaneous-feeling arrangements.<\/p>\n<p><iframe style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;\" src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=1211780397\/size=large\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=de270f\/tracklist=false\/artwork=small\/track=1922239787\/transparent=true\/\" seamless=\"\"><a href=\"https:\/\/understanding123.bandcamp.com\/album\/the-joy-of-living\">the joy of living by Understanding<\/a><\/iframe><br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/H8U1qMfjnVk?si=6ksLp-IN9oRXCxla\" width=\"1000\" height=\"563\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><br \/>\n<iframe style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;\" src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=1211780397\/size=large\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=de270f\/tracklist=false\/artwork=small\/track=2751417413\/transparent=true\/\" seamless=\"\"><a href=\"https:\/\/understanding123.bandcamp.com\/album\/the-joy-of-living\">the joy of living by Understanding<\/a><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><em>The Joy Of Living<\/em>, recorded by Rob McLay, is out now digitally and on cassette via Cooked Raw.<\/p>\n<p>Add to wantlist: <a href=\"https:\/\/understanding123.bandcamp.com\/album\/the-joy-of-living\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bandcamp<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Some releases announce themselves with big gestures, but The Joy Of Living wins you over by quietly pulling you into its world. It is the debut EP by Understanding, a new indie pop quartet featuring Nolan Jakupovski (guitar, vocals), Lucas Temor (keyboards, vocals), Alex Baigent (bass), and Avalon Tassonyi (drums, percussion), musicians active in various [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[6542,623,7039],"class_list":["post-33745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-indie-pop","tag-cooked-raw","tag-ep-review","tag-understanding"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>New EP: Understanding || The Joy Of Living - Add To Wantlist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/addtowantlist.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/01\/new-ep-understanding-the-joy-of-living\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New EP: Understanding || The Joy Of Living - Add To Wantlist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Some releases announce themselves with big gestures, but The Joy Of Living wins you over by quietly pulling you into its world. 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