Jupe Jupe – Down With The Setting Sun
Your suspicions are founded, but nobody wants to hear about it. You might have been inclined to complain to your parents, spouse, or the folks down at the bar, but, eventually, they felt forced to tell you to knock it off with that hopeless, depressing talk.
And, to be fair, there’s plenty of that on the news every evening. What’s more, everyone feels it in their bones, and they’re scared of it. Other than gospel prophecies, there’s no ancient book that you can pick off the shelf that will tell you anything different.
People are awful to each other. It’s not because they’re born that way, but rather because they identify this as their best bet to move forward and get what they want. Pop music is designed, for the most part, to help you forget about all of that. Luckily, there’s still an alternative, and bands like Jupe Jupe are busy worrying themselves with what this all means.
It really depends on what your tolerance for anxiety is. That’s how you’ll know how to appreciate Jupe Jupe’s “Down With The Setting Sun.” You’ll either hear it as a stylish, ‘80s goth-inspired track that bittersweetly blends with the background. Or, if you zoom in closer on it, you may hear it as the sound of humanity moving further astray with each passing minute. The truth needs a soundtrack, even if most people are simply too tired to deal with the truth anymore.
The Mad Mile – Usable Advice
If the record companies had their way, the only kind of songs that ever got written and recorded would be pop songs. If the same companies had their way, they’d make so that every single song was about the Summer, drinking with friends, and driving an automobile at top speed. Essentially, every single tune would be fit to soundtrack a commercial for light beer.
What about if one of the partner film studios needed soundtrack material for some horror or drama? Well, the old, creepy alternative music would just have to do, and that’d be an exception. The fact is that cheerful, hopeful music is certainly easier to sell, and pairs with advertisements much more easily. Still, that’s not the sound that most people hear in their heads as they’re walking through dark, dirty streets all across this big, often hopeless world.
The world is looking, I’d assume, for music similar in tone to that made by The Mad Mile because they need a sound to make sense of their own anxiety and loneliness. Still, those topics are not the ones an advertiser typically wants to trigger. Well, in that case, the good news when it comes to the band’s single “Usable Advice” is that the crepuscular feel of the song is balanced by wonderful melodies and a lush production style. The world may need darkness, but it also needs an antidote to it, and The Mad Mile try to provide both in the same song.
