Amor by Lupe de Lupe

When people bring up the story of Moses lashing out at his people for worshipping the golden calf in his absence, we’re meant to guiltily find ourselves in the misguided congregation, but I think more of us have felt a flash of Moses’s anger than we may expect. Brazilian post rockers Lupe de Lupe share in Moses’s dismay on Amor, a love story from the day after everything falls apart, a day when we must stand face to face with an indifferent world after being given a chance to witness something transcendently beautiful. The band takes a fairly straightforward, organic, and rock-oriented approach to this popular sound, live-recording their titanic swells of ascending chord progressions to compliment their unabashedly raw, personal vocal performances. From the heights of passion, those moments of romance that give us a glimpse into a paradise beyond our comprehension, a dramatic fall into ordinary inconvenience feels like a condemnation to hell. Guitars disperse into unorganized noise, vocals trail off into mumbled discontent, and we’re left dumbfounded by a world worshipping a golden calf.