Rupe’s Delicately Rendered Indiepop Song “growing up is strange” is a Nostalgic Look at the Past and an Embrace of Making New Memories to Add to What’s Been

Rupe is a 23-year-old songwriter from rural, north Louisiana and somehow on his single “growing up is strange” he perfectly articulates a sense of nostalgia and loss that people usually only really fully feel in their thirties or older. The hazy shimmer in the background is the perfect tonal backdrop to a spare guitar melody and Rupe’s introspective immediacy in his vocals. He brings to the song details of life in a rural town that translate well to the cognate from your own life of people and places that made up the social circle you took for granted at important stages in your life whether that was in your youth, your young adulthood, even middle age or older. When Rupe sings “I thought those times would last/This life just moves too fast” it just rings true and even more so these days when the social artifacts of our lives are being torn down and replaced with a corporate version of what once had more resonance and meaning because of the memories made and the social context of a time that sit fondly in your memory. And yet change we have to accept and not get stuck in the past and we hear Rupe’s own acceptance that life moves onward whether we’re emotionally ready for it or not with the closing line “And oh for once it feels right.” While it’s nice to revisit a wonderful time in our lives it’s also good to make new memories to add not replace or take away the old. The song is reminiscent of early 2000s indiepop but doesn’t sound particularly stylistically beholden to a particular artist. It just has that refreshingly earnest and intimate feel that puts a song’s hooks into your brain. Listen to “growing up is strange” on Spotify and follow Rupe at the links below.