Earthlung – Joy¿
Genre: Post-Punk
Every year the World Happiness Report comes out. Each year it chooses well-developed countries, especially the ones in the Northern part of Europe, as the happiest in the world. And, each year, the folks living in those countries bitterly protest.
It’s strange how this happiness that the good people at the United Nations seems to also coincide with rankings looking to determine the highest rates of depression across nations. Could the two strangely be the same thing?
Music plays a similar role. There’s more of it than ever before, and just about anyone can access it. Still, everyone who is really into music will tell you just much they’ve grown to hate it. Could this be love?
Earthlung’s Joy¿ is a deliriously catchy and funny tune that perfectly soundtracks the bitterness and restlessness of our times. It’s a tune about wearing your lack of direction as a badge of honor. Besides all of this, the monotone singing, the lyrics, and the psychotic guitar lines are bound to keep us all entertained.
Jocelyn & Chris – Sugar and Spice
Genre: Indie-rock, Indie-pop
There’s a very thin line between avoiding reinventing the wheel and falling into the trap of doing formulaic work. Pop-rock music is forced always to have to deal with this issue.
When should artists demand more of themselves, and when should they read the room and give their audience what they expect? After all, every teacher of music will tell you that the hooks of radio songs are built on the power of familiarity.
Throughout the history of pop music, some ideas have simply worked out better than others. Consequently, these have been the ones that have tended to come back again and again.
The blues and garage-rock are two of the most irresistible styles of music. Jocelyn & Chris know this and inject strong doses of both these things in Sugar and Spice. Otherwise, this is a pop tune pushed forward by well-performed singing and well-designed guitar pop. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel, but you can show it in a different light.
