walking upstream…
The Neighbourhood
photo: stefan brending (2eight) · cc by-sa 4.0 ↗The Neighbourhood
The Neighbourhood formed in Newbury Park, California, in 2011, pairing frontman Jesse Rutherford's R&B-inflected croon with the chorus-drenched, atmospheric guitars of a moody California alt-rock band. Presented almost entirely in stark black-and-white, they broke through in 2013 with the slow-burning single 'Sweater Weather,' whose blend of indie rock, hip-hop rhythm, and R&B melody found a second life on streaming nearly a decade later. Across albums like 'I Love You.' and 'Wiped Out!' they refined a downcast, genre-blurred sound that helped define one strain of 2010s alternative pop.
the sound in question
2013
Sweater WeatherThe Neighbourhood
walk the tributaries ↓
The Cure1980s · Post-punk / Gothic rock / Alternative rock
The Neighbourhood's signature texture — clean, chorus-soaked electric guitar ringing out over a dark, romantic melancholy — sits squarely in the tradition The Cure built across their atmospheric records, and listeners have long heard 'Sweater Weather' as an heir to that sound. The shimmering, reverbed guitar figures and downcast, lovelorn mood are the most audible inheritance.
listen: upstream & here
1989
Pictures of YouThe Cure
2013
Sweater WeatherThe Neighbourhood
listen forPlay The Cure's 'Pictures of You' and then 'Sweater Weather' — listen to the way both let a bright, chorused guitar line circle over a heavy low end while the vocal stays hushed and lovelorn, romance rendered in cold, widescreen blue.
Justin Timberlake2000s · Pop / R&B / Dance-pop
Rutherford has named Justin Timberlake and NSYNC among the pop music he grew up on, and has described his biggest influence as hip hop 'with rock songs in between'; that pop-R&B grounding surfaces in his smooth, melismatic phrasing and falsetto, which sit closer to a boy-band-schooled R&B singer than a rock shouter.
listen: upstream & here
2002
Cry Me a RiverJustin Timberlake
2013
AfraidThe Neighbourhood
listen forCue Timberlake's moody, whispered 'Cry Me a River' next to 'Afraid' — hear the same breathy, R&B-schooled vocal runs and hurt-then-defiant delivery draped over a dark, beat-driven backing rather than a straight-ahead rock arrangement.
Kid Cudi2000s–2010s · Hip hop / Alternative hip hop / Pop rap
The band's music openly folds hip hop and R&B into its alt-rock, and Rutherford has called hip hop his single biggest influence. You can hear that inheritance in the half-sung, melancholy hooks floated over spare, atmospheric beats — the moody, melodic register that Kid Cudi did much to push into the mainstream of rap.
listen: upstream & here
2008
Day 'N' NiteKid Cudi
2015
Daddy IssuesThe Neighbourhood
listen forThrow on Kid Cudi's 'Day 'N' Nite' and then 'Daddy Issues' — both ride a slow, hazy beat under a hummed, downcast melody, the vocal drifting between singing and speaking as it circles a private ache.