Jupe Jupe : Invaders
Has your popping and locking been pooping and lacking? Jupe Jupe are here to put the lift in your loafers and pep in your pumps with twelve ditties of grandiose electronic ambiance. The Seattle quartet’s sparkling debut album, Invaders, is sure to become a synth-pop favorite at Sadie Hawkins dances and VFW picnics from coast to coast. Every song here is begging to be a single. “Something About Love” has already been mined for Hugo Boss’ website, where its metrosexual, cosmopolitan sounds will surely move even the most overpriced merchandise.
Like a good number of like-minded spacey electronic albums, lead singer My Young’s lyrics are pabulum in mere service to the almighty atmospherics. Every digitally encoded utterance has a slightly fey quality, like his neckerchief is a little too tight, but nobody listens to music like this for revelations or epiphanies. That’s why Invaders works like glow-sticks down the front of your pants: It’s a reminder that dance music works best when stripped to the waist and full of froth. That’s why “Something About Love” is four-to-the floor deliciousness, all sparse and limber keys, with Patrick Partington’s wicked electric guitar breaks. Multiple moments on Invaders rock convincingly, especially on”Add As Friend,” with its live drumming and soaring, cerebellum-searing chorus.
The album’s later half goes all pastoral, and mellows out like a puppy on painkillers. “The Fading Din” recalls Echoes-era Pink Floyd, and features stretches of eerie keyboards split with heavy guitar riffing that’s big and pompous without being campy, although it’s not hard to think of two effeminate and dapper vampires getting it on to “The Grand Drape”‘s spooky, cinematic moodiness. Jupe Jupe’s sci-fi glam synth rock sounds like a risky proposition, but it’s remarkably assured for a first effort. After a few listens and maybe some glitter face paint, Invaders will cling to you like fresh Velcro.
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