Ice
Cold Pop
By Scott Roberts
In the recent movie The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, the wide-eyed, backwards-aging title
character is asked about whether he’s too old to be working on a tugboat.
“There’s no age limit,” he innocently replies, “as long as you can do the
work.” I suppose the same could be said for writing and releasing pop songs
tinged with youthful exuberance and adolescent longing as evidenced by the new
release Ice Cold Pop from Decatur
Keeper.
The “band” is actually just one guy, Rob Stuart, a one-man juggernaut in
his mid-40s who writes, plays and produces everything on the CD (except
for a couple of guitar parts). The capable musician, who enjoyed some regional
success in the North Carolina jangle-pop band One Plus Two WAY back in the
1980s, has put together a pleasant collection of mostly upbeat, peppy pop tunes
that bring to mind a simpler, more melodic time that “older” listeners will
find nostalgic and younger listeners might find revelatory.
The songs on Ice Cold Pop are
generally three-minute, no-frills affairs driven mostly by electric guitar (“Directions,”
“Fake It”) with occasional piano or keyboard flourishes (“Worship From Afar,”
Life is Killing Me”). The last two songs on the CD, “Secret” and “Goodbye,” are
acoustic dominated numbers and are probably the best songs on the disc. Perhaps
Stuart should explore this avenue more fully for future releases.
Lyrically, Stuart will never be mistaken for Dylan or Costello (though
there is some nice wordplay on the cliché-bashing “Once”), but the songs are
well-crafted and mostly conversational, which fits well with his tuneful, if
indistinctive, voice. Overall, Ice Cold
Pop is not world-changing or overly innovative, but most power pop does not
aspire to such lofty goals and Broken Promise Keeper is doing a worthy job of
carrying that genre’s torch into the 21st century.
Thanks for the review ScoRo!