Some singers are able to pass the guest appearance stage and spin off a successful career of their own. This seems to become the case for John Paul Cooper, aka JP Cooper, who featured on Jonas Blue’s “Perfect Strangers”.
Up until writing this blog, Cooper was just a voice on the radio. I kind of thought he would like Charlie Puth or Shawn Mendes. Everything about his voice reminds me of that kind of a guy; the clean boy next door type. However, if you take a look at him pictured on his Facebook page with dreads and hat, you would not expect that his new song, “September Song”, is his.
“September Song” has actually been out for a while, but has been re-released after his successful run with Jonas Blue. This time around it has been picked up by radio stations. The tropical influenced pop song fits all the sounds of today, so JP Cooper has already been dubbed a Justin Bieber sound-alike.
I’m not sure if I agree. I detect a slight soulish undertone in his voice reminding me more of music from the likes of James Bay or even something as smooth as a Jason Mraz. If you listen to his earlier material, like “In The Silence”, you’d detect it too. His music has got a little bit more maturity in its lyrics, which show in interesting angles (like “Satellite”).
“September Song” is the most annoyingly catchy song in his repertoire today. Even if you don’t like it, you are singing it for the rest of the day, but the rest is very easy to listen to and I would definitely play it on a lazy Sunday afternoon when I’m just chilling out. It would be a shame if the serious music lovers among us would get scared off by something as commercial as “September Song”.
The song has actually got me wondering if you could create a musical calendar. This is not the first song about a particular month. Of course there’s “September” by Earth, Wind & Fire. And then there are a few songs I can think of about other months: “Gone 'til November” (Wyclef Jean) and “November Rain” by Guns n Roses. If you know any more I’d like to know. It will be a great blog topic.
