Jupiter Hollow
Bereavement

It is the third album for Canadian duo Jupiter Hollow, it is called Bereavement and I have been listening to it quite a lot. The cover is pretty dull, but the press material promised a band that does not believe in genres and is aiming to create an artistic impression unlike anything else in the music industry. That is a good aim, but you need something quite special in order to achieve such a thing and it is not many that succeed in such endeavours, and even if you succeed there is a chance that you then overproduce the album and it still seems flat. So, what about these guys, are they successful in their quest?

Musically they can be placed in many subgenre boxes, they tick several of them but probably most at the progressive rock area. They have a fairly diverse soundscape and are quite fresh sounding in some regards. However, for a band that does not believe in genre they tend to follow genre guidelines quite a lot, when they venture in different direction they always seem to keep within established structures and don’t really come up with anything that stand out as their own or really different. It is an artistic expression to take elements and combine them into your own thing, but they don’t really do this either, they sound fairly fresh but it is always familiar and don’t quite make me think that these guys have really found a unique expression, something that should be important if you are looking in progressive directions.

Bereavement is a good album, with good songs, with good production, there isn’t too much to complain about really. But to reach the upper half of our scale you need to do more than just fine, you either need to come up with something excellent that just grabs the listener and holds him or her firmly in its grip. Or come up with something that is so fresh and exciting, unique, that it has the same effect, this album doesn’t do that. I don’t find a standout track and I am never really taken with their progressive or artistic qualities. They are fine as creators and musicians, but that is more or less what this album proves, it doesn’t give us that unique artistic expression that the press material seems to allude to, I think that is a good target for any band to strive for but Bereavement isn’t the album that gives us that unique expression.

If you like the general progressive rock genre, you will probably find this album at least acceptable, perhaps even really good. But it is not an album that will change your view on artistic expression in music, neither will it be your new favourite album. Still, I think that Jupiter Hollow does pretty well, I just think that they need to be a bit braver and think a little bit more outside the box. With that said I guess the conclusion is that Bereavement is a decent enough album, it could be worth checking out if you like the similar bands.

 

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