Drawing us in with an intricate, acoustic guitar soundscape and a brooding timbre, expanding with textured drums, M & J open NOT A LOVE SONG with the conceptual lyrics, “I really wanted to write a love song for you, I really wanted to write a love song for you, wouldn’t it be cool to write a love song, apologies you may want to stop listening…”
The opus evolves with dynamism, brief pauses and captivating hooks that remind us of the timelessness of writing a love song, but with a twist. Speaking on the release, M & J confess, “This is a personal experience, and it’s a song about wanting to write a love song for someone that you’ve met and care about.”
The duo continues, “You realise it’s unrequited love, and although you may have wanted to write a love song, it ended up being a tale about all my dreams and hopes for the relationship and what I wanted to write about. As those elements didn’t materialise in the relationship, it meant the song I ended up writing was not a love song.”
There is something refreshingly self-aware about the track, with M & J taking the familiar love-song format and turning it on its head. We really appreciate that honesty. Rather than dressing the experience up as a grand heartbreak anthem, M & J allow the disappointment to speak for itself, with moments of humour and self-awareness running through the writing.
There is a cinematic quality to the track too, amplified by the fiddle riffs. We could imagine NOT A LOVE SONG landing a sync deal in a film like Voicemails from Isabelle, 500 Days of Summer, or Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, particularly during one of its more reflective moments. On the television side, it could easily soundtrack a bittersweet scene in Adults, Normal People, Fleabag or Lovesick, where humour and emotional disappointment sit uncomfortably close together.
As a duo from Bondi, Australia, M & J also bring a strong sense of place to their wider project. Their music often draws from Australian landscapes, beaches, flora and wildlife, with the pair even taking their own cover photography. That personal approach carries through into NOT A LOVE SONG, making it feel like a genuine snapshot of an experience rather than a song built around a formula.
Needless to say, we are in awe, and have added NOT A LOVE SONG to our New Music Spotlight playlist, and our TIMELESS playlist, whilst we continue to stream the wider discography of M & J, including She’s COSMIC light, I Just Miss a Mate, and Coachella.