Jupiter One

A "sunshower" is a rare meteorological phenomenon in which rain falls while the sun is shining. Sunshowers often lead to rainbows. "Sunshower" is also the title of Jupiter One's sophomore album.


There are rainbows and plastic foxes on the cover. Fantastic! Jupiter One has got a chipper pop-rock sound with the occasional pinch of trippy. Upbeat and fun enough to party with a mainstream audience, but still casual and progressive enough to be considered cool by the indie kids. The first single Flaming Arrow is the best example of such a happy median.

Track List:

1. Volcano
2. Lights Go Out
3. Flaming Arrow (mp3) (iTunes) (amazon)
4. Made In a Day
5. Anna
6. Simple Stones
7. High Plains Drifter
8. Find Me a Place
9. Come On
10. Strange Teacher
11. People In the Mountain

This album is like getting to know someone that you might meet at a party. The first five tracks are the head-bopping, toe-tapping good times that you share laughing and living it up like we young people are supposed to. As he launches into an anecdote about a "Flaming Arrow", you think to yourself, "this guy is crazy-awesome, we should totally hang out more often", and you invite him along to your next shindig knowing that he'll be the life of the party. You really hope that he'll sing that song about "Anna" again. You could listen to that over and over again without getting tired of it! Then you realize in tracks six through eight that this guy's actually got some depth to him. It turns out your new friend Sunshower is a real person too, with real issues that are a lot darker than your first impression of him lead you to believe. Tracks like "Simple Stones" and "Find Me a Place" leave you with the feeling of reluctant realization. You miss the happy-go-lucky Sunshower you thought you knew from your first meeting. You can tell he's still in there somewhere when "Come On" starts playing, but he lapses back into a contemplative state for the last two tracks. The last half of the album really is quite good when you look at it objectively, but deep down, if you're being honest with yourself, you're just gonna keep putting those first five tracks on repeat. You were just too smitten with Sunshower when he was happy; it's hard to picture him any other way.

But enough of my albums-are-people-too nonsense. Jupiter One's Sunshower drops into records stores on September 15th. See what kind of impression it leaves you with.