Anthony Ruptak Releases A New LP
A new album released by Anthony Ruptak brings out a very warm and sort of welcoming tonality that takes elements of folk and singer-songwriter, and blends them with a light-hearted rock approach, giving the whole release a very honest but well-rounded sound, packed with this kind of character or personality that you end up really loving along the way.
The album is called Tourist, and the first and title track gives you a great introduction and opens the door to the rest of the record, because you have this warmth delivered right from the start.
You can hear a lot of emotional depth behind the track, and you find more of that as a staple throughout the entire record.
The track boasts the guitar tone that walks the line somewhere between clean and a little bit gritty and dirty. This works well because he doesn't lose that folk rock approach but still adds a little bit of edginess to everything along the way.
You also have these vast and sort of spacious guitars that add a different feel and texture to the song, and vocals that deliver a very unique approach with a great vibrato, and that vocal approach is something that becomes the character of the record.
It's very addicting and a little outside the box, but you can hear how authentic it is as well.
This record is a bit experimental, and I enjoy that a lot. Songs like "Is This Real Life" delve into other approaches like classic rock but still have that almost rustic folk underbelly.
At times, you hear a very post-rock feel coming through, and this is a perfect example of exactly that. The whole record brings together a number of influences, and I feel like this is why it has its own atmosphere.
This is a record that builds a very particular kind of aesthetic, and although it feels slightly familiar, it's almost like delving into new territory because it does take that emotional backbone and post-rock approach, staying close to folk almost all the time.
I love this because you do get that warmth, but you also have this edgy overtone through a lot of the release, and that can feel expansive or even cinematic at times.
The record also has great effects on the instruments a lot of the time. You can almost always hear certain kinds of reverb effects on some of the guitars, giving more depth to the soundscape of everything, which in turn can help push that emotional side even further.
The whole record got live precaution, which is something that brings everything to life and also helps build some of the drive behind songs.
You also get glimpses and hints towards Americana with songs like "Shitshow", which also gives you such an honest portrayal of the artist's inner thoughts that just come out.
In the sense of honesty and personality, the record is very boundless. However, it's also sort of boundless musically as well.
The whole album does give you a steady and confluent set of tones and textures, but it bends genres throughout its course, and I found that to be a bit refreshing.
There are also instances where you have a very full-bodied background to songs, building more of that cinematic aesthetic and making things more lush in their approach.
One of my favorite songs is the closing track called "Lenny's Rest", which has beautiful string sections, adding a bigger, fuller sound and really grabbing your attention.
Songs like this and others can be very graceful and have a certain kind of elegance behind their performance and songwriting.
The whole record has a way of swallowing you up. I mean that in a good way. You can get engulfed by the entire thing and really get involved with how personally he can be lyrically, along with how descriptive he can be at times as well.
The moods are set by the intense sounds and tones that you hear. The songwriting is beautiful and has a way of wrapping itself around you and keeping you right where it wants to while the lyrics tell the story.
All of this comes together like puzzle pieces, and this is one of the many reasons I would suggest listening to the entire record from start to finish, all in one shot.
There's a lot to go through with 10 songs, including the one I just mentioned, which closes the record as a song that spans over 8 minutes.
So there are big ones here. Some songs delve deep and take different directions, they're surprises throughout the record, and it's such a unique and brilliant blend of those genres that it's hard to turn away from.
It's also been a long time since I've had a record that gives you this much character all in one shot.
When it's over, you feel like you've just read a book. Each song is like a chapter in that book, and you don't want to skip around.
You wouldn't skip chapters in a book, so I wouldn't suggest skipping songs on this record.
This was wonderfully woven, performed with a lot of heart and instinctively vulnerable but wonderfully intense at times.
Dive into this one now, and see exactly where I'm coming from.
This release is quite an experience.
