Del Water Gap

One Liner: Ex-bandmate of Maggie Rogers making great indie pop

Wikipedia Genre: indie pop

Home: Brooklyn

Poster Position: Level 3 (12)
Weekend Two Only.  

Sunday.

Thoughts:  I am sort of surprised, but I like this much more than I originally expected.  Apparently there is something called the Delaware Water Gap, which is a water gap on the border of New Jersey and Pennsylvania where the Delaware River cuts through a large ridge of the Appalachian Mountains.  And so I assume that is what this dude named his thing after, because his real name is Samuel Jaffe.  

He started the band in high school, and while he was at NYU Maggie Rogers actually was part of the band for a period of time.  After that it has been a solo project.  His big single blew up because of several celebrity call-outs - "actresses Margaret Qualley and Kaitlyn Dever posted an Instagram video of themselves performing a "socially distant dance party" to the song during the first summer of the COVID-19 pandemic. The song was subsequently covered by singer-songwriter Gracie Abrams on her Instagram page and referred to by actress Florence Pugh as her "favourite song"."  So there you go.  This is "Ode to a Conversation Stuck in Your Throat," which has 61 million streams.

Maybe a Harry Styles vibe going on there?  I like the insistent beat behind it.  It is good.  Catchy and danceable.  Some of the other popular songs are a little less upbeat, and his band name is really not good for rolling off the tongue.  He does a pretty enjoyable cover of Avril Lavigne's "Complicated" that takes it kind of downbeat and chill.  HIs first single, back in 2015, is almost country folk, like some sort of Son Volt lament.  it is actually really enjoyable!

Several early EPs, and a live album, but his first real true album is an eponymous one released in 2021.  And nothing much since then.  HIs second-most streamed is a 2018 single called "High Tops."  26 million streams.

Now he's into his Ryan Adams stage, with a little flourish of the Beatles - dude's voice has a British sneer to it here and elsewhere that is odd, being that he was born in Connecticut.  Normally, I'd be running the other way from indie pop, but this has been legitimately enjoyable.  I like it.  I doubt I will be there for Sunday of Weekend Two, but this should be nice!