Love song to Catalonia from Australian singer-songwriter Vance Joy

“The streets still radiate with heat, we hang on to the summer / Pour me a tall dry vermouth, and take me undercover.” Vance Joy’s latest single is a love song to Catalonia, where he spent several months living with his girlfriend during a pandemic-enforced break between tours. In ‘Catalonia’, the Australian singer-songwriter paints a picture of the Catalan summer, with long, late nights by the sea in Barcelona’s Old Town. “Spend another night with you in our sweet disorder / The seaside always fills the air all through the gothic quarter”.

An upbeat number, similar in style to Vance Joy’s breakout hit single ‘Riptide’ from 2013, ‘Catalonia’ nostalgically evokes sights and sounds which many visitors to the city might find familiar. “Across the square, we hear the bells toll midnight in the churches / Another stroll to nowhere under olive trees and arches / Climb up to your terrace, look out over the rooftops / Intoxicating moments in the moment so lost”.

The summer vibes are strong in the music video too, directed by Macari Golferichs. It’s reminiscent of the well-known summer ad campaigns published each year by Estrella Damn, minus the beer of course. It stars Inés Coca on road trip through the Catalan countryside, climbing trees, picking fruit and flowers, cooling off in rivers and lighting campfires by the sea.

‘In Our Own Sweet Time’, Vance Joy’s third album, was released last Friday and is available on Atlantic Records. Vance Joy comes to Razzmatazz in Barcelona in April 2023 and it is a safe bet that the chorus of ‘Catalonia’ will be the biggest singalong moment of the night. “Hey Catalonia, I can hear you across the ocean / All the stories that we left behind, I trust you’re my alibi / Hey Catalonia, I was just getting to know you / When you stumble down those streets tonight just know you’ll be on my mind.”