Out on January 26th from Washington D.C.-based band Broke Royals, the Big Dream EP impresses in its melodic range — from the title track’s punchy pop radiance to the introspective folk stylings of “Toasted Almond” and the soulful intrigue within “One Look.” The EP marks the band’s first foray in featuring different vocalists, with excellent leads from Rebecca Basnight (“One Look”) and Taimir Gore (“Toasted Almond”), in addition to usual vocalist Philip Basnight.
“Big Dream” opens up the EP with fun, replay-inducing charisma. The lyrical emphasis on “big dreamers” compels alongside sporadic guitars and a playful synth trickling, expanding into a fuller-bodied hookiness. The steadier guitar distortion during the rise traverses into organ-laden pulses with seamless cohesion, aesthetically reminding of LCD Soundsystem in the steady vocal presence, while a more rock-forward composure takes hold as a soaring guitar traverses past the two-minute turn.
While the EP’s title track struts a hooky, radiant brightness, Big Dream enamors with a variety of tonal pursuits. The ensuing “One Look” engages with a soulful suaveness. Reflective guitar bursts and sparser, nocturnal soundscapes coexist through a dynamic tonal range. The stylish “all those lies I told myself,” sequence — alongside the acknowledge that “they never really helped,” — builds into an excitable guitar buzzing, making for an especially riveting structural direction, propelled throughout by the melodic vocals of Rebecca Basnight.
An accessible pop/rock brightness enamors on “No Time For Love,” with a pit-pattering percussive pulse and chugging guitar movements swirling around delectable vocal harmonizing. “So much but it’s never enough,” the vocals let out into a jubilant “kiss my neck,” hook; this is another addictive earworm. Another success comes via “Toasted Almond,” where Taimir Gore’s vocals lead a folk-forward introspection. Forlorn acoustics and an electronic-touched rhythmic feeling combine for ample aesthetical intrigue, as the “don’t stand in my way,” vocal plea enthralls into the alluring “have another almond drink on me,” chorus.
Capped off by a memorably tender cover of The Strokes’ “Is This It,” the Big Dream EP is a thoroughly consuming success from Broke Royals, whose dynamic spanning of pop and rock succeed through a multiple array of vocalists and hooky arsenals.
