JUPITER SUN- Alternative Press Review

December 1995 issue of Alternative Press Magazine, Inc.
Volume 10 – Number 89

Jupiter Sun are from San Jose, California, not Scotland. But you'd never know that form the delightfully tuneful, trippy, fuzzy pop on the trio's long-playing debut. Admirers of Creation label can't go wrong with Atmosphere, which melds together the best bits of the 80’s Scottish underground without sometimes cloying adolescent quality that kept many of those bands from reaching a wider audience despite their melodicism.

“What you are is quite familiar”, sings Matt Murdock during the ebullient “Zookeeper”, and indeed with high-pitched helium vocals, lighting guitars, distorted hooks and acid –laced jangles, Jupiter Sun recall Biff Bang Pow!, the Jasmine Minks and the Weather Prophets. But more than recycling a favorite era, Jupiter Sun refine and explore new crannies, creating something ultimately larger than the sum of their influences and with a remarkable melodic freshness.

There’s a great range here as well, perhaps because Atmosphere covers different parts of the band’s young career, and includes an EP released last year by Slumberland. They have a mystery of pop dynamics, and an ease with slamming ballads into third-gear and idling just for a moment in the midst of the racing “Blow Up” and Violet Intertwine.” “Coming Down” and Inside This Room” have an echoey, 60’s psychedelic feel, “Headlight Beam Reaction” pounds deliriously, while “Accelerate” and “Thoughts” filter bright tunes through a gauzy, lazy-day haze. Whether shimmering or scruffy, Atmosphere practically bursts with winsome pop that’s engaging and tuneful without the molasses-drenched, wide-eyed innocence of their forbears. Which means it’s destined to hold up an awful lot longer. (Parasol, 905 S. Lynn Street, Urbana, IL 61801)

– David Daley

Italian Version