Do not worry about waiting for your favorite artists to release a new album every four years. The Velvet Sundown released four albums in two months!
The Velvet Sundown, an AI-generated psych-rock band, thrives on the motto “Not quite human. Not quite machine. The Velvet Sundown lives somewhere in between,” according to Spotify.
The truth is, The Velvet Sundown might not be quite human, but it is definitely a machine. According to Spotify, their music is made through a synthetic music project, guided by real human creative direction. Everything else, from their guitars to lyrics, are completely AI-powered. Truthfully, I do not think there is anything I would rather listen to less.
With the band holding over 255,000 monthly listeners, The Velvet Sundown’s top five songs have amassed over 6.4 million streams, according to Spotify.
Their most popular song, “Dust on the Wind,” has over 3.3 million streams, but it does not deserve it. This song is timeless, and compares well to other music made by real people. Yet, once you find out it is AI, there is no going back.
The second song on The Velvet Sundown’s popularity chart, titled “As the Silence Falls,” is from a different album. Usually, when listening to a band’s music, you would expect consistency between albums, at least with the genre. Though this song brings a calm and cool vibe, it sounds like it is from a completely different band than “Dust on the Wind.”
Next is “Drift Beyond the Flame,” from the same album as “Dust on the Wind.” I liked the lyricism in this one, and if it was not AI, I would listen to it all the time. Once again, though, their fourth song on this list, “The Wind Still Knows Our Name,” sounds like a different band again. The music is not bad, it is just not music.
Lastly, we have “Leave the Light On,” my personal favorite of the five most popular songs from The Velvet Sundown’s discography. The lyrics tell a story and draw you in with the sound. This is a different album from all the others, and you can tell by listening to it.
This band might not be bad — but it is not a band. I wanted to like the music throughout my listening, but it is impossible when all you can think about is what made it. Music like this should not be created for no reason. We could easily support other humans’ hard work rather than adding more streams to The Velvet Sundown’s list.
