Rupert Stroud: 'Rupert Road'

Whilst the advent of the internet and file sharing has in some ways been detrimental to the stability of the music industry, in other ways this fragmentation has opened up space for musicians to reach an audience without the help of major labels. However, for every success like Lily Allen, this democratisation has the capacity to offer opportunities to inferior artist who previously would have been restricted to performances at local pubs. Unfortunately Rupert Stroud’s self-released debut album falls into the latter category.

Despite claiming in his press notes that he has an eclectic taste and a broad spectrum of influences, with 'Rupert Road' the Leeds-based singer-songwriter has produced a set of chugging, mid-tempo, stolidly produced rock balladry that veers between Oasis-style anthems and the recent, workmanlike and lackluster output of Ryan Adams and his protégé Jesse Marlin.

'Just Like We Used To' is a lovelorn, sterile ballad that offers the listener such lyrical insights as ‘when the sun is shining everything will be alright’. 'Take A Look In The Mirror' is a facsimile of the kind of acoustic strums that Noel Gallagher was churning out as B-sides around the release of 'Definitely Maybe' - not unpleasant, but lacking any sort of personality or originality - whilst 'All The Things You Said' has an America-friendly rock earnestness to it.

Fortunately 'Rupert Road' is not entirely bereft of promise. 'Saturday Night', with its hoe-down, country energy, exuberant steel guitar and wordy lyric that is rattled off like vintage Dylan, is by a distance the best thing here.

Rupert Stroud is certainly not the finished article, but there are enough glimpses of promise here to suggest that, given time to mature and develop a musical identity of his own, there is the possibility that he may produce better albums than this.



Released on 27th April 2009 by Xidus Music.

Written by Sam Monk.