Posted on November 11, 2010 - by Mark Zonda

Jules Not Jude: The Dark Side Of The Apple

Jules Not Judes is a band from Brescia, Italy, clearly in love with The Beatles. You can tell not only but the band name but from the title of these blokes debut album: “All apples are red, except for those which are not red”. We already had the chance to appreciate the band as a duo with the nice EP “Cloud of Fish”, and the work was so nice everyone in here awaited the first long playing with great expectation.

I must say we weren’t disappointed at all! “Apples” is all about simple pop songs, but in these case what makes it worth of your consideration and ongoing listening is really in the production. Now not only JnJ are a band, but they’re supported by the crème of the Italian “indie” scene from the collaboration to the core of the mixing. Basically quite anyone on Le Man Avec Les Lunettes took its part in making this “Apple” so tasty. with a little help of some Annie Hall guys as well.

You can’t judge a book from its cover, but you can tell an apple from its skin, and the clever art of the front is screaming:”Pop is a shout on the CD”.

One of the thing I appreciated the most about the band was the attention they paid in any detail of “All Apples Are Red Lonely Heart Club Band” opens withstarting from song titles. It’s also nice how such a rich and brilliantly arranged album is open and closed by two honest and plain acoustic songs: “Run” (quite like we’re executing a program) ad “Eleven” (of course track n#11) in a very Pink Flyod “Animal” fashion.

I kept on listening to this album on and on on my car along with some Flipper’s Guitar CD, and I was really hit by the vocal, writing, sounds and band attitude similarities between the band, since I had the album in shuffle and sometimes I was wondering if some of the tracks from the guys from Brescia were songs of the Japanese bands I had forgot! That was the case of “Back Tonight”. I’m not sure if this song is the one I loved the most from the album, but I must say that was able to stuck in my mind more than any other one in the basket. It’s really nice how the track suddenly falls from time to time to be suspended and reprised with powerful choirs, just line when you hold your breath trying to keep cook when you meet the one you love. The synth bridge with reminiscences of Burt Bacharach are a smart move as well.

We already talked about Pink Floyd. Another strange alikeness has to be found on Track#4. We’re not facing Back to the Future Doc’s collection, but just like in Dark Side Of The Moon the fourth track opens with an alarm o’clock, possibly a noise quote on “A Day In The Life” instead. The song we’re talking about is called “Chance” anyway, and is portraying an ordinary love/life scene just like in the best McCartney tradition. Possibly melody and singing are white victims of the Italian melodic ’80s scene even if J&J are too young to step in the shoes of the smart killers.

More energy has to be found on tracks like Ordinary Sunshine, with a powerful beginning, a more straight and rock oriented sound and an unfailing hand-clapping, but it’s really the crazy Bubabeat winning on any other song of the album, twisting an acoustic ballad in a western salsa march in Salsa Leone, having a surprising trumpet solo in the second part of the song. Shifting from Flipper’s Guitar to Cibo Matto. That what I espect from the Italian Sean Lennon Simone Ferrari and his band on his next surprising album.

Jules Not Jude – “Run”

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