YEAR OF THE CAPRESE
Cherub's 2014 effort, Year of the Caprese, brings the party and the sound that hipsters and trendsters alike can dance to. The full-length album funnels the electronic-pop Generation Y finds hip and chases it with the age-old consumable ardor of soul and funk. The secret is in the simplicity. Hailing from Nashville, Cherub is a music duo born out of cathartic honesty. Jordan Kelly and Jason Huber do not mince words; life is as they tell it.
Caprese's opening track, "Simple," sets the stage well, starting and staying left of center. It is clear that the culture Huber and Kelly were bred in is indeed, "eternally on the run, from everyone." From here, the album's escapades are not only relatable and visceral. They're just so damn pretty. "Simple" sets in, championing the fact that we "don't wanna live too fast or die too young," but that can be inevitable.
Enter Cherub's breakout hit, "Doses & Mimosas." From phone screens and social media to designer lipstick, our insights are eclipsed by the need to manipulate our serotonin. The hipster's apathetic self-appraisal, at first commonplace, becomes more and more sensationalized with a little bit of "‘pagne and ‘caine", making this single a roll-down-the-windows-and-curse-your-enemies favorite. But this bubbly hit is nothing you haven't heard.
Next, "Disco Shit" delivers the soothing that early evening demands. Kelly's falsetto rings and promises to "keep you up all night." The drug-induced hysteria that gels the album together is explicated plainly. Love and fun supplant the remorse that regret brings. Despite this drug-addled beginning, deeper insight awaits. Caprese rocks on.
Testing the limits of genre, "Strip to This" calls in all those country lovers and takes them into the fogged consciousness of a bachelor in a strip club, asking, "Is this love, or am I drunk?" The jury is still out. ForteBowie's feature on the track seeks to discern if "she twerking for a meal." Either way, twerking is now a means of sustenance.
Another deep cut synthesizes the essence of Caprese. "Tonight" croons, "tonight is a good night to start the rest of our nights." The quest for more, for better, for lust, for conformity, for diffidence, for flamboyance and everything in between is delineated here. In that grey area, Kelly and Huber advise, "You gotta fake it ‘til you make it / I accepted it and embraced it."
In Caprese, there's so much wrong and so much right. Then again, life could not be represented better for a twenty-something. There's a lot of truth here in this record. The whole bit is a jam. Don't delay, listen today.
Listen to Disco Shit by Cherub
Danton Moyer is a junior Political Science major and Philosophy minor. He strives to answer the questions that have yet to hold replies and those which have not yet been asked.
