Cupid & Psyche Romanic Music Tangerine Orange

The dual forces of shadow and light, despair and hope,frustration and catharsis are at play in the music of Cupid &Psyche, the Los Angeles-based indie rock duo of MichaelVidal and Juan Velasquez. First gaining recognition in the lateaughts as members of the punk band Abe Vigoda, whose2010 album Crush was named one of the "Best 50 Albums ofthe 2010s" by Pitchfork, the two have reunited ascollaborators for the first time in a decade.Cathartic jam sessions would birth the emotionally resonantsongs that appear on their debut album, Romantic Music.Though they pull from a wide array of `80s and `90sinfluences, Cupid & Psyche bring together these disparatemoods and genres through their own esoteric lens onRomantic Music_making for a singular sound that at oncefeels familiar and alluringly hypnotic. Listeners will detect thegloom of post-punk and goth, the haziness of dream-pop andshoegaze, the bittersweet guitar melodies of second-waveemo, and the manic electronic rhythms of trip-hop and bigbeat.The immersive soundscapes on Romantic Music aresometimes agitated and driving, while other times etherealand transcendent. This duality matches the album's lyrics oflooking for a divine escape from the grim realities of existence,as well as the darkest parts of one's psyche. "The thesis of thealbum is trying to transcend the limits of life and the struggletherein," Vidal says. "There's a lot of lyrics about feelingtrapped or frustrated, and then trying to find a way out.There's a lot of times I sing of hope and grasping towardslove. But maybe in trying to escape, you take the wrong door,be it substance abuse or other vices."Now as Cupid & Psyche, Vidal and Velasquez return to afriendship that creatively feels like home_except this time,with more experience, self-knowledge, and less pressure tomake anything other than the music that emerges naturally.The LP's title Romantic Music is tongue-in-cheek, since thereare no love songs proper on the project, and the...