Julien Chang – “Memory Loss”

Erica Snyder

Julien Chang – “Memory Loss”

Erica Snyder

Julien Chang is on to something. The 19-year-old multi-hyphenate is releasing his debut album Jules next month on Transgressive, and man have the early singles been good. Those include “Of The Past” and “Butterflies From Monaco,” both of which framed him as sort of a yacht-rock Kevin Parker figure.

Today’s new track “Memory Loss” continues that trajectory. A punchy keyboard riff, some chillwave-worthy synth chords, and harmonious high-register “la la la” vocals carry this one along quite beautifully. As he tells Billboard, it’s about the fear of losing your memory and the thrill of not quite remembering why you feel some type of way:

A worsening memory is something I’ve always been worried about. The song was made with a kind of structural rigidity in mind, and about memory’s natural lack of it when having trouble putting faces to names, for example. It’s easy to be frustrated by that feeling, but being left with a sudden emotional reaction sparked by some stimulus for an unclear reason can be as lovely as it is disorienting.

Listen below.

Jules is out 10/11 on Transgressive. Pre-order it here.

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