How do you do good pop? We suggest to find the answer you ask Kevin James Neal and Sydney Morris better known as Jude. For they seem to know. They have a trio of songs on line now, each of which falls into the very good category. “Don’t worry about me,” oozes Sydney on their new relationship asphyxiation based crooner Can’t Breathe, a song that’s powered by big sorrowful drum sounds and a sense of moody atmospheric drama. There’s a sense of solemnity here that lends the track a pleasing weightiness that conflicts with much of the feather lightness of the average pop song. Maybe it's that depth that makes good pop? Maybe. We're still trying to figure it out.
Can’t Breathe will feature on the duo’s forthcoming EP.
Jude - Can't Breathe
3rd time up for Florida two piece Jude on Breaking More Waves and this time it’s the new video for a song we’ve already streamed, albeit back in April of this year. However, the video (or as the title on You Tube states, a visualette) gives us another reminder that Crystals is
1. A very good pop song
2. A very good pop song
3. A very good pop song
We hope you understand where we’re coming from with this.
In fact two and a half months on from when we first heard Crystals the tune has, like a good wine, improved even further, showing that not all pop is here today gone tomorrow. The video / visualette like the tune keeps things simple, showing black and white footage of the duo hanging out by the sea and Sydney doing some prime head swaying whilst singing. We reckon if we were in Florida we'd want to hang out with these guys - they ooze a certain nonchalant coolness don't you think?
Let’s just remind ourselves again, it's something about Crystals being a very good pop song. OK? That's right. A very good pop song.
Jude - Crystals (Video)
If for historical purposes you wanted to mark out exactly what decent contemporary pop music in 2014 sounded like, Florida duo Jude’s second release Jaded would probably be a good place to start. In exactly three minutes and thirty seconds it manages to combine pretty much everything we like without ever sounding clichéd. Kevin James Neal and Sydney Morris cast verses from electronic spaciousness, whilst the chorus is made from striking grit-pop drama. Sydney’s vocal intonation has (like on debut track Crystals) a resemblance to Lorde once more, although her tone is somewhat higher and less menacing.
The song is labelled on Jude’s Soundcloud as bedroom pop. We’re not sure if that’s meant to reference where it was created, where the band think it should be played or if Jaded is considered suitable for whatever else goes on in that particular room, but whichever it is we’d recommend that you don’t limit it to just there – Jaded deserves to be played everywhere. It's free to download below.
Jude - Jaded
Comparisons to the vocal classiness and spacious electronic backing of Lorde are inevitable, but irrespective of sonic similarities this debut track, Crystals, from West Palm Beach residents Jude is an outstanding electronic pop song. There’s not that much information to go on at the moment, we don’t even know if the duo’s name was chosen after Jude The Apostle, Jude Law, The Beatles song, or something else. All the band told us as they dropped the song into our email in box yesterday afternoon was this: “We just released our first song today for free download. Ep coming this summer.” Their Facebook isn’t much help either: “You’ll see what you want to see,” they state.
What we do know is that Jude consists of Sydney Morris and Kevin James Neal and that Crystals drips and flows into the ears with fluid ease and then coats itself liberally over your brain. Give it a couple of plays and you’ll be humming the line about ‘crystals in the sky, everyone’s trying to get on by,’ before you know it. We particularly like the way that Sydney sings the word get – like she’s having to force it out from the back of her throat with some force.
A meritable start, now let’s see if they can throw in some more of their own identity as they release more material going forward.
Jude - Crystals
