Jack Stauber – “Buttercup”

By: Jesse Benitez

Quarantine has us picking up new hobbies, discovering new music, and undeniably, downloading Tik Tok. Yep, even I’m guilty for having the video-sharing social networking app on my phone. What can I say? It helps pass the time while introducing me to all kinds of music: new, old, and the reintroduction of songs I wish I had forgotten from my youth! Nonetheless, I respect the abundance of creativity shared through the service from all around the globe. Every now and then, I get a good laugh from some of the videos as well. One of the tunes I couldn’t get out of my head a while back, was from that viral Tik Tok of a ferret dancing. You know the one I’m talking about, where the ferret moves to the beat along with an origami Pikachu friend. Man, the internet can be a wonderful place.

Later, I came to discover that this cute ferret was jamming to Jack Stauber’s shimmery “Buttercup,” the first jam off his upbeat 2017 release, Pop Food (2017). The track doesn’t hesitate to get right to the popular mix of fluctuating synths and hammer-ons along the guitar. Stauber’s voice elevates in an emotional pitch, singing words that don’t seem to make much sense to us, yet somehow we can’t stop bopping and melting within the song. “Pop Food’ is the perfect way to describe what the music feels like, it’s like floating asteroids that liquify into a psychedelic sonance, ultimately feeding into your soul. The whimsical trip slowly transforms into a noir landscape, with a ballad out of the 50s, as Stauber lovingly serenades listeners briefly, before exploding back into a splashy confetti of colorful pop. Stauber is a truly expressive artist, experimenting with a mix of rich and translucent amounts of sounds to give his songs both dimension and texture.