Album Review: Broke Royals – Campr

The past can often become pertinent in the present, for good or ill. Broke Royals examine that, and more, on Campr.

History is meant to be linear, they say, always going forward, but it’s easy to forget that it can repeat. Better Off, the first track on Campr, details the disorientation of the first Trump presidency, but it is – sadly – just as relevant today.

It’s not a maudlin track, far from it in fact. Broke Royals obviously love music, and on both Better Off and the album’s title track, they share that love unreservedly, wanting to bring the joy of music to the listener, whatever the message of the lyrics they share with us.

That’s often done with a tonal palette that takes its cue from shoegaze and dream pop but always remembers – as on Still – the vocals and lyrics are vital things to share.

The past makes its presence known in other ways, as on Carriage, where the jangle of The Smiths bubbles in the mix of a song that has the wit and harmonies of Prefab Sprout at their most insightful.

Campr is 100% indie rock but looks well beyond those confines thanks to its arrangement, and in how the songs examine the nature of friendship, distance, boundaries, and self-direction in an era where all of those seem to be up for revision, and not always for the better.

With different band members taking on vocal duties and working together on some delicious harmonies – The Weather being a prime example – what comes through strongly is that the band are all coming from the same direction in a myriad of ways. Their vocals bring a range of moods to bear on each song, with Undertow having a wistful quality that worked well with the upbeat tempo of the melody. 

Home, Looking For, and Felix are individual stories, but the lyrics have recurrent themes of relationships – friendships and others – that need work to survive and thrive. Again, the vocals offer new perspectives and new interpretations, as they allow the band to push the sound of the album to other places.

The delicate Waited So Long brings the album to a close, a torch song with a twist – a duet where you expect a solo voice to share shattered emotions, a bittersweet end to a cohesive and cathartic series of songs.

A reflective album, but not an introspective one, Campr is like a roll of film transformed into music, with Broke Royals taking personal images and personal memories, piecing them together to assemble a sonic mosaic that offers a myriad of tales within one great, beautiful story.  

Campr is set for release on the 6th of February and can currently be pre-ordered on Bandcamp in digital format. Broke Royals play Norfolk (Virginia), Brooklyn, and their Washington hometown after the album is released – check out the band’s TikTok and Instagram feeds for details.

Header photo by Aaro Keipi