Songfacts®:

• In "Joy," Nick Cave starts out feeling blue but is visited by a ghost that tells him that the time for sorrow is done, while the time for joy has arrived. It's a personal song, but fans and critics (and Bob Dylan - see below) received it as a call for humanity as a whole, being released in 2024 amid a long stretch of global anxiety and destabilization.
• A ghost in giant sneakers, laughing stars around his head
  Who sat down on the narrow bed, this flaming boy
  Who sat down on the narrow bed, this flaming boy
  Said, we've all had too much sorrow, now is the time for joy
  
  While the connection is never explicitly stated in the song, it's hard to hear these lines without thinking of Cave's previous album, Ghosteen. Part of that album deals with Cave's deceased 15-year-old son, who makes an appearance as a ghost.
• "Joy" is the sixth track on Wild God, the 18th album by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds (at 6:13, it's the longest song on the record). The album detours from the Seeds' usual dark and dour personae, being optimistic and overtly full of faith, hope, and spirituality. The album was well received, beloved by fans and cracking into charts all across Europe and the United States.
• And I jumped up like a rabbit and fell down to my knees
  
  This line is similar to "Frogs," the second single released off Wild God. Both are about leaping towards the transcendent, falling just short, and coming back to Earth, not in shame or disappointment but in humility, reverence, and gratitude.
• On November 19, 2024, Bob Dylan posted a comment about "Joy" on X. He wrote: "Saw Nick Cave in Paris recently at the Accor Arena and I was really struck by that song Joy where he sings 'We've all had too much sorrow, now is the time for joy.' I was thinking to myself, yeah that's about right."