Artist:
Julience
Composer: Vincent Julien Le Blanc
Lyricist: Vincent Julien Le Blanc
Release Date:
June 01, 2025

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Black Sheep

Reach-me-down genes passed down the family
Like second hand rag dolls and Playmobil
A wicked curse of genealogy
I never could quite fit in society

Because I’m the black sheep
Woah I’m the black sheep
Because I’m the black sheep
The black sheep of the family
(Let me tell you about it)
(Oh yeah)

I had a penchant for nonconformity
My teachers all told me I was such a pain
I never strayed far from depravity
32 years of bad luck and shame

Because I’m the black sheep
Woah I’m the black sheep
Because I’m the black sheep
The black sheep of the family

That’s right I’m the black sheep
Woah I’m the black sheep
That’s right I’m the black sheep
My name is whispered in a hush

Because I’m the black sheep
Woah I’m the black sheep
Because I’m the black sheep
The black sheep of the family

That’s right I’m the black sheep
Woah I’m the black sheep
Oh God I’m the black sheep
The black sheep of the family

(One, two, three, four!)

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Reviews & Feedback

that song is an earworm – the chorus has been playing in my head since i heard it!
@unclefunkbeard

This is brilliant another incredible track from you! You’re always guaranteed plays off me anyway so that’s a given 😁
Laura Beth

Black Sheep is a great and inspiring rocker. I caught it on the Indie Music Showcase yesterday and I really dig your guitar playing on it. I hope others will give it a listen. I’m sure they’ll like it as much as I did
Black Creek Rock

Just heard the new song of Julience. What can I say? Amazing, dude! Great song, great sound! Don’t miss it, dears!
Quim

Black Sheep is a great and inspiring rocker, I caught it on the Indie Music Showcase yesterday and I really dig your guitar playing on it. I hope others will give it a listen. I’m sure they’ll like it as much as I did
Black Creek Rock

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Black Sheep, by Julience
Written by Jake Sommer

The history of the term black sheep runs surprisingly deep, rooted in a mix of biology, economics, and human psychology. In 16th and 17th-century European agriculture, a black lamb was a financial headache for shepherds. Born from a rare recessive gene, its dark wool couldn’t be dyed, making it commercially worthless compared to the white flock.

By the 1600s, Puritans turned this economic nuisance into a harsh religious metaphor for sinners and outcasts who disrupted the congregation. Today, social psychologists even study the “Black Sheep Effect”—the phenomenon where a tight-knit group judges a non-conforming insider far more harshly than an outsider because that non-conformity threatens the collective identity.

It is a heavy history that fits the hard-hitting rock observations of Julience’s new track perfectly–Black Sheep.

Black Sheep starts out with a “start me up” Stones-style vibe against a Blue Oyster Cult-like back-end percussion (He even throws some Mick Jagger-like “Uh’s” throughout, which is just awesome). Typical of Julience, the lyrics are raw, reflective, forward, and above all authentic.

The song quickly gets to the line, “I never strayed far from depravity.” There is a deep universality here that a lot of people are going to relate to, especially when he hits the lyric, “I never could quite fit into society.” In this way, I suspect Julience isn’t just speaking about his specific family of origin but the broader human family as a whole.

Maybe we’ve all felt that isolation and group rejection at some point. He drives that point home with the line, “my teachers all told me I was such a pain,” tapping right into that universal childhood feeling of being misunderstood by the very institutions meant to shape us into matching the white flock. But not all loneliness and not all isolation are the same, and anchoring back to Julien’s use of depravity, it seems he is channelling the rarer use of the term–debasement.

It brings to mind George Bernard Shaw’s famous play Pygmalion, where Alfred Doolittle completely exposes the hypocrisy of social expectations, famously shooting back when questioned about his morals: “Can’t afford them, Governor. Neither could you if you was as poor as me.”

Musically, I love when Julience lets the guitar tone out starting around 2:11, and brings on the background synth at 2:28, all with the percussive swell around 2:40… it just works so well. Julience is good at making points in his songs, then letting you sit with them, while he cranks out chords for you to digest, and it is a great feature of this song.

This world has a lot of political and social correctness, and maybe what I love best about Julience is that he is just who he is. Maybe that is why he is a black sheep. Julience does not compromise. He just emits what he thinks, feels, and plays, and we are the much wiser and better for it. In that way, there is an argument to be made that all the conforming sheep are really the abnormality.

#BlackSheep #Julience #RockReview #StonesVibe #BlueOysterCultPercussion #GuitarSwell #SynthRock #AuthenticLyrics #HumanCondition #OutcastAnthem #BlackSheepEffect #Pygmalion #GeorgeBernardShaw #NoCompromise #JakeSommer #journeyrock #flow #musicformidnight #pennywisdom #solitarysunrise #theprisonyears

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Indie Music Showcase 6/1/26

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