One of the most intriguing up-and-coming subgenres in the alternative rock universe is dream pop. With influences from psychedelia, dream pop got its start back in the 80s, but is now getting a lot more attention. Which is good, because now we have some fantastic groups popping up, like Say Lou Lou.

Say Lou Lou are made up of twin sisters Miranda Anna and Elektra June Kilbey-Jansson, hailing from both Australia and Sweden. They have released five singles and a debut LP Lucid Dreaming, with most songs produced under their own label, à Deux.

Okay, story time.

Senior year of college, I became friends with this kid Julian. You can probably see where this is going. Anyway, Julian and I were fast friends. We talked about a lot of things, including music. Eventually the question of favorite songs came up and I started to panic.

Months before the friendship, I had accidentally found the song “Julian” by Say Lou Lou and it was 100% the song of my summer. I loved it. It was nothing like anything I’d ever heard before.

But I couldn’t tell him that.

I couldn’t just say, “Oh yeah, I’m really digging this one song that shares a name with you and it has nothing to do with you or the fact that it could be interpreted as a love song and I swear I liked it before the school year started and it has nothing to do with you.” Instead, I probably said something about Brandon Flowers.

I was in the clear, until… the incident.

The music video for “Julian” is no longer available on YouTube for some reason, but back then, I had just watched it on the work computer (I had a pretty lax job), and I thought I closed out of the browser.

Julian had the shift after mine, so I sat on the couch by the desk and started playing on my phone. All of the sudden I hear, “Julian? Is this a song? Were you listening to this?”

My palms were sweaty, knees weak, arms were heavy. I scratched my head and said, “Umm… yeah. I actually really like the song but didn’t want to say anything because I thought you’d be weirded out about it.”

It was an awkward situation to say the least. But after a while, he admitted that the song was good and until now, the incident had not been spoken of. I doubt he’ll read this, so we’re good.

Long story short, “Julian” is a solid groove and only induces panic if you know someone with that name. It’s not that common, so odds are, you’ll have a stress-free listen.

Featured image taken from Say Lou Lou – Maybe You (official video) via Say Lou Lou (with some editing by Nicole Metzler).