Few debut releases arrive with such a firm grip on authenticity, but Alpine Jubilee ensured theirs did. My Morbid Tone makes no effort to dilute its raw humanistic essence—it presses it to the forefront with piercingly poignant intimacy.
The alternative duo entwine the hallmarks of traditional folk singer-songwriters with jangly indie pop guitars to resonate with fans of Julian Cope. As meta as music gets, My Morbid Tone employs multifaceted devices to lay bare the dissonance of emotional and ideological distance. The morose vocals steep the track in melancholy, yet the luminous longing in the guitar tones offers a contrast potent enough to mirror the ache of being tethered to someone whose nature exists in opposition to your own.
Clashing perspectives, musical tastes, and the unspoken chasms between people manifest through every note, turning this into a deeply personal exploration of isolation that is rarely approached with such lyrical and melodic precision.
Formed by brothers Trevor and Glenn O’Neil, Alpine Jubilee’s folk-tinged indie pop is the result of a transcontinental collaboration between Toowoomba and Geneva who extrapolate influence from 80s new wave, twee-jangle pop, electro, and contemporary nu-folk to orchestrate accessible Avant-Garde installations of often unspoken introspection.
My Morbid Tone is now available to stream on all major platforms, including YouTube.
Review by Amelia Vandergast