Dude Trips - 'Through Love & Death, You’re All I Have Left' Album Review

Tracklist:

1. Blank Canvas

2. In Between Days

3. Documentaries

4. Sunday Club

5. Tampa Bay

6. &

7. Subbuteo

8. Kit

9. 91

10. Through Love And Death

The 31st of May sees the release of Dude Trips’ debut album “Through Love & Death, You’re All I Have Left”. The band hail from Fraserburgh (that’s in north-eastern Scotland for all you non-geographical fiends) and have garnered praise from Kerrang! and Noizze UK amongst others. The band have released two EPS (“Sad Lads” and “Keepsake”) previously, but this is their first ‘proper’ foray into the studio.

The album opens with “Blank Canvas” which deals with the aftermath of a breakup, with singer Sean Ross almost matter of factly telling the story over simple guitar before the song erupts into a raging, bitter chorus that feels almost cathartic. This sets the tone for the “Love” half of the album with songs like lead single “Documentaries”, a storming track about trying to get over someone but also secretly holding out hope and not letting go and “Tampa Bay” which is a really simple, gentle but brilliant song and when Sean sings ‘Can I hold your hand/the same way I did/when I first kissed you?’ it does genuinely make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. However, if the songs about Love are brilliant, it’s the “Death” half of the album that really elevates this into a must listen (never thought that was a sentence I’d ever write, but there you go).

“Subbuteo” is loud and raucous and sticks in your head for days and feels like it should be the next single, but there are two songs that really stop you in your tracks – “Kit” and “Through Love And Death”. “Kit” has a simple, guitar led arrangement but it’s the emotion in Sean’s voice that really does it…there’s something so genuine and heartfelt there, that it gets inside you and you can’t help but to be moved. Likewise, “Through Love And Death” starts simply but explodes with such raw emotion and pure rage that goes straight to your core…both create such a visceral reaction that it’s hard to do them justice through description.

I’m really glad I listened to this album a few times before I read the blurb – if I’d read it first, I would have seen the ‘Emo’ mention and probably kind of closed my mind to it a little…and that would have been an immense injustice to this album and to the band. Buy the album, listen to it, love it…and thank me later.