RPM Challenge Profile: Broken Promise Keeper
I’ve traded copies of my RPM albums, Buildings and Real Time, with various other RPM Challenge participants. Since I feel like I should be writing more here, I’m going to briefly review profile the albums I’ve received. We’re not really giving out grades here, since everyone gets an A for finishing, naturally.
I should also point out that you can find all this music in its entirely on the RPM Challenge Jukebox.
Artist: Broken Promise Keeper
Album: The Avocado Age of Radio
Rob Stuart, aka Broken Promise Keeper, first caught my attention with his 2007 RPM album, Songs of Hyprocrisy and Hippos. Minimal and tentative in a way that we can totally relate to based on our experience recording our own RPM debut, Hippos‘ combined copious standout riffs and hooks with a restlessness of sorts; if he could do something this catchy with drums, bass, and a couple guitar parts, one got the impression that, RPM tradeoffs notwithstanding, Stuart had a knack for this stuff and could well be about to unleash a more epic work.
His 2008 effort, The Avocado Age of Radio, does not disappoint in this regard. The instrumental opener, Welcome to The Circus hits you with the good right away; as a simple piano riff yields to simple yet thickly-layered guitar melody and dense vocal harmony are pushed along by driving drums and cut of by clattering animal and circus noises. The album whizzes by with one pop gem after another; Avocado is meticulous with its arrangements and performances as Stuart eschews guitar pyrotechnics in favor of serious pop appeal; the rhythm section, occasionally grooving and occasionally driving, offers a solid (surprisingly so for not-real drums) foundation for an array of rocking electric guitars (No Choice), bouncy twelve-string acoustic riffs (the Byrds-esque And Life Goes On), and playful backing keyboards (Innocent). Stuart sticks to what he knows, but the rockabilly-infused Done Everything and and the Bruce Hornsby-esque St. Simons offer listeners the occasional change-up.
Why you might like it: It’s catchy, thought-out, and polished. You will not listen to this and instantly forget all the songs. And I mean that in a good way, not like that stupid I Kissed a Girl song that has infected, like, everyone I know at some point.
Why you might not: It’s power-pop through and through, and even the more psychedelic tracks stick to the tried-and-true formula entrenched in popular culture from the British Invasion through the Weezers and Fountains of Waynes of the world. Not your thing? Sucks to be you.
My (additional) two cents: The BPK Web site has comprehensive notes for all this stuff that made me want to keep this review short, since it itself tells you what you need to know. Stuart has also been quite the media darling of RPM, having gotten press coverage on the PowerPopulist blog, the Atlanta Business Chronicle, and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
