EP Review: Want You Back

Julia Morris is a multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter hailing from Auckland, stepping out as indie-pop soloist Jupita on the debut EP Want You Back.

Whilst the opening track’s title Anxiety might fool you into thinking this will be a heavy moment and collection, this number is actually incredible fun. It’s a bright, catchy tune about a person who makes promises they can’t keep, with a laughing melodic hook that will stick in your head for hours. “I’m pathetic in a feel-good way”, she smiles, in on every self-deprecating joke. Sharp guitars and digital sparks build a 90’s feel with a youthful modern twist, defining Jupita powerfully from the get-go. She embraces her Kiwi accent for a quirky vocal sound, making each song’s snappy, wordy lyrics feel light and tongue-in-cheek.

Want You Back details a hyper-specific sapphic relationship over Y2K-inspired production. Morris counts text messages, mourns the loss of a red jacket (perhaps a reference to cult classic queer performer girl in red.) and shouts out fellow indie artist Courtney Barnett, painting an uncomfortably real picture of pining for someone long gone.

It’s followed by the moodier Stop, which features Oasis-esque guitars and a raw, nostalgic chorus. By this point, Jupita’s artistic identity has become clearly distilled. She deliberately queers the conversational lyrical style of current pop, and melds it to the upbeat, subtly punky sonic direction of 2000’s teen movies, making for something relentlessly joyful even in its sadder moments.

Ur So Annoying and All Messed Up bookend the EP and solidify this idea. Jupita adopts casual slang without it feeling soon-to-be-dated on each song, with text speak titles and plain, shrugging lines like, “I’m getting tired of all the stress and stuff”. The pumping sound and conflicted feelings on All Messed Up particularly seal off the project’s theme of recovering from one specific relationship nicely. Jupita pulls in the grief, discomfort, love and frustration into one punchy track, that allows listeners to get through their feelings and simply shake it out on the dancefloor.

It’s rare for a musical project to click with its audience on first listen, but Jupita does just that with the impressively concise and fun Want You Back EP. Indeed, once it’s over, you’ll crave the experience to start all over again, so make sure to hit play and repeat on this thrilling new endeavour as soon as you can.