J Halp: “You Let Me Down”

Song quality is rarely measured in runtime; as long as it “hits”, there’s no need to wear out your welcome. Like for every “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” there’s a “Song 2” or a “Disciples”, right? Because when you’ve done everything you need to do to make a tune total, and as long as a quick dose of dopamine translates to the listener experience, there’s a real charm to wrapping your originals up into a neat little package. And that’s doubly true when the number of songs you’ve worked on enters the triple digits.

So it’s not a tangent to bring up drummer-gutiarist-singer-songwriter extraordinaire Josh Halpern, better known these days on the solo front as J Halp. Prior to embarking on this one-man endeavor right as the pandemic hit, Halpern had already entered the annals of Austin music legends thanks to his work with Still Corners, Bayonne, Shearwater, and of course as one half of 2010s local legends Marmalakes. When someone’s memorized as many songs as Halpern has, you might think they’ll end up sacrificing quality for quantity. But instead, this multi-disciplinary madman’s shown he can easily translate his godly endurance for jamming into recording room brevity, and sure as hell hasn’t let us down yet.

Well, hot off a performance with Voxtrot at Primavera Fest out in Barcelona, J Halp’s jumping in with his first solo single of 2024, “You Let Me Down”. Clocking in at just under one hundred seconds, “You Let Me Down” is an impressive psychedelic lesson in the less-is-more mindset, one that manages to squeeze in all-organic drum breaks that spill out killer fills, infectiously unhinged guitar, a hypnotic vocal refrain, and instrumental inserts that make the absolute most of their brief appearances. And since a shorter duration does demand more repeat listens, all we’ve left to say is, “well played, Halpern. Well played…”

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