Broke Royals – The Luxury of Time III
Cyrus Rhodes
Posted On May 18, 2016
Washington D.C. based duo Broke Royals have shared stages in the eastern United States with iconic and indie acts alike, enjoy large receptive audiences for their particular brand of music, and have remained steadily creative since their 2014 formation. It is hard to consider their numerous live shows and three ep releases in less than two years and not peg these two superb songwriters and musicians as intensely creative individuals able to keep one artistic foot in yesterday, one in today, and keeping their ears turned towards the future. Broke Royals are an unit that affirms traditional musical virtues while still exploring new territory in the personal. The EP’s production renders every texture and musical elements with vivid detail. Their latest release, The Luxury of Time Pt. 3, is an on target, intelligent and commercially minded release that never panders.
It gets off to a stirring beginning with the youthful self-determination of “On My Own”. It isn’t difficult to imagine this song garnering an enthusiastic audience response and the band, Philip Basnight and Collin Cross, certainly throw themselves head first into song’s passionate stride. Harmonies and melodies are very critical to the success of various songs on this album, but “On My Own” depends on them more than most and offers many highlights. Cross’ drumming throughout The Luxury of Time is another important factor in the work’s success. “New Suns” is the second half of a memorable one-two punch opening The Luxury of Time Part Three. This is one of the EP’s most vibrant tracks and breezes by listeners with just the right touch. The song is less reliant on harmony vocals, but the melodic presence remains as strong as ever and the largely solo vocal is quite capable of handling the song’s demands.
“Young Tigers” represents the album’s only real dip in inspiration, but there’s no loss in overall quality. The opening two songs set an impressive bar for Broke Royals to continue living up to throughout and the EP’s third song suffers from nothing else really except not clearing the same high hurdles. In all meaningful respects, it’s a fine song, but doesn’t reach the same summits as earlier tracks. “Love, Youth, & Glory” has no such difficulties and is another composition sure to deeply resonate with a wide portion of the duo’s audience. Broke Royals’ same trademark strengths, harmonies and melodies set within inviting musical textures, are fully on display in this song. “Heartless Come Around” is a final track sure to linger in listeners’ memory and ranks as the EP’s best example of meaningful understatement. The band eschews the big, brash finale in favor of an almost literary approach – the songwriting seems fully cognizant of the need to wrap things up and this particular offering seems made to order for that very purpose.
Few bands or solo performers would dare this type of mix today. Bringing eighties style synthesizers, rock attitude, and singer/songwriter sensibilities into a glistening pop package is the providence of the past, not a modern music industry focused almost exclusively on pop country and rap. If this is the truth, Broke Royals didn’t get the memo, and we’re all better off for it.
8 out of 10 stars.
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Broke Royals – The Luxury of Time III
Cyrus Rhodes
